On Nov. 1, 2007, a group of volunteer firefighters stepped down from the Orangeville fire service after pressure from their union. The reason was two-hatting.
The firefighters were employed full time in another jurisdiction and volunteering in their hometown of Orangeville. The union said this was against the rules of their governing federation, and they had to stop.
For former Orangeville fire chief Andy Macintosh, who was the chief for the 2007 affair, it was a union focused on full time memberships and its own size, and a move that put his community at risk.
“I was always under that threat,” Macintosh said. “It was never said to me, but I was aware of that threat. If you didn’t do something the union wanted, they were going to come after your volunteers.”
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Today, Macintosh is watching the two-hatter issue unfold in Caledon.
In 2016, seven Caledon firefighters who work as full time firefighters in other jurisdictions, and volunteer in Caledon, were charged for their volunteer work by their union and ordered to cease the activity.
The move created a dispute that has seen five of the local firefighters stand up to their union with the support of the local government, as well as vocal support of their community.
While the firefighters maintain that what they do on their own time, is their own business, they also espouse the benefits of having experienced full time firefighters in small town and rural fire houses.
Meanwhile, the union contends that it is an issue of safety for full time firefighters to be firefighting on their downtime as well, citing exhaustion and stress, as well as a coverage issue when it comes to the liabilities of an employee or volunteer getting hurt on the job.
The issue ended up in front of a tribunal in 2017, with the five firefighters now subject to ever increasing fines for volunteering in their home community.
They are appealing the decision and continuing to volunteer.
Macintosh said he’s been watching local the two-hatter fight closely, and questions the motives of the union. The timing doesn’t make sense, he said, if it is a safety issue.
“They’ll talk about safety issues and blah, blah, blah. It was no secret this was going on in Orangeville in 2007, so why would they wait until now in Caledon if it’s about safety?” he asked. “It usually comes out of the woodwork when the union wants something.”
What upsets him, the former chief said, is the impact other firefighters are having on their own departments.
“In a day and a half I lost 46 years of fire fighting experience in 2007,” Macintosh said. “It had a big impact. It took us two years of training to get a firefighter on all the trucks (ready for anything). I always tell people the fire you get in downtown Toronto are no different. You don’t get as many, but when you get one, a fire is a fire.
“You have to be trained. The volunteers have to go through the same training as a full-time. So by losing that many people, that many years experience, it hurt.”
Asked what he would like to see, Macintosh said a more involved government. Ontario, with Nova Scotia, remain the only provinces in Canada without specific legislation to protect the activity. While Ontario’s government introduced a bill that attempted, but didn’t achieve the goal, McIntosh said writing it in stone is the only way to go.
And called on the government to write stronger legislation.
“It’s the provincial government, they have to do what every other province has done. They need that legislation that says you can do what you want to do on your own time. And it doesn’t matter which (party) won. When we were fighting it, the conservatives we’re in, now the Liberals are in. They just need to do it.”
Fred LeBlanc, the 13th district vice president for the International Association of Fire Fighters, said there is a reason for the time gap between the Orangeville and Caledon cases, and that is simply awareness.
“We do not go out trying to find members engaged in this activity as we have thousands of members and we simply do not know who it is doing it,” LeBlanc said. “When a concern is raised then we become involved. We have been most successful with education and members resigning on their own.”
LeBlanc said he is surprised that more attention has not been paid to the tax money that is now being spent by town’s like Caledon, “to fight against a ruling that found them in violation of the constitution.”
LeBlanc said the union was consistent in Orangeville and Caledon in offering phase out programs, but when those were refused, more aggressive approaches were used.
“I am at a loss why they did not spend their energies on advocating to change the rule they so adamantly disagree with to the point of ignoring it and bringing all of this onto themselves,” LeBlanc continued. “What I think would be in the public's interest in Caledon is how much the town has spent on this matter.”
Link to original article in Caledon Enterprise: 'In a day and a half I lost 46 years of fire fighting experience': former Orangeville fire chief says province needs to protect two-hatters