Wednesday, February 9, 2022

A New Training Standard for Ontario Firefighters

The Ontario fire marshal and minister of the solicitor general issued a regulation establishing a provincial training standard for all firefighters

Newsletters Ontario Emergency Services

By Ian DeWaard, Ontario Director

CLAC shares the view that this regulation is needed. The municipalities where you and your fellow firefighters serve have widely varying approaches to new firefighter training. New recruit training programs can range very significantly, both in quality and quantity.

CLAC and its membership and elected leaders reviewed the new regulation and are of one voice in endorsing it. We welcome the introduction of a made-in-Ontario universal firefighter training standard.

Program Is Tailorable

We commend the authors of the regulation for setting out the standard into blocks, so that a training program can be adjusted to meet each municipality’s level of service, and to align with the scope of responsibilities for firefighters of different rank and role.

In creating this flexible, tailorable approach, the time required to train a new firefighter can be kept to a reasonable amount. If trainee/recruit training hours are set too high, this can create a significant entry barrier to prospective firefighters, thus negatively impacting the municipality’s ability to recruit new firefighters. This is an important consideration for many rural departments that rely exclusively on volunteer firefighters.

Training Blocks Are Described with Precision

We are also encouraged by how specifically and precise the training blocks are set out in the table at Section 5. The majority of Ontario’s 18,000 volunteers attend training sessions on a weekly or biweekly basis. Through a combination of upfront recruit training and continued weekly or biweekly training, we believe it is reasonable for volunteer firefighters to complete training within at two-year period.

We also think the specificity of the training described at each level provides municipalities with clear direction on how to build and maintain an annual or biannual training regimen.

Standard Balances Varied and Competing Interest

In setting a standard, this regulation properly takes into consideration the key concerns of many rural stakeholders. This regulation

• does not create too high a barrier for entry for prospective volunteer firefighters;

• does not create a significant additional cost or administrative burden on small rural municipalities;

• does set a clear and reasonable benchmark on which to build a new recruit and weekly/biweekly training regimen for any fire department that relies on volunteer firefighters.

Time for Implementation and Grandfathering

It’s worth noting that this regulation attends to various criticism that had been made of a predecessor fire training certification regulation (Ontario 379/18), that was revoked. In particular, and by contrast, the new regulation does

• provide reasonable time by which municipalities must comply (four to six years);

• affords the fire marshal with authority to certify firefighters;

• provide for proper recognition of prior credentials and a reasonable time for when such credentials must be compiled and submitted to be approved by the fire marshal;

• recognize recent and relevant experience and training of firefighters up through to 2019 to 2021 (depending on which certification standard is being recognized).

What is not set out in the regulation are any details on how certification and testing will be accomplished. This will be a significant component of future training, but we start from the presumption that the fire marshal understands this and that it will make testing adequately accessible, of consistent quality across the province, and affordable.

We presume the best, in part because what’s been demonstrated so far in the positive and forward-thinking decision to regionalize the task and functions that were previously offered only at the Ontario Fire College.

We support the regulation as it’s presented for establishing a training standard for Ontario. The province has charted a course toward an ideal outcome that respects the different sizes and needs of Ontario’s municipalities.

A New Training Standard for Ontario Firefighters

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