An article that appeared on May 9 on Radio-Canada’s website, produced by their investigative program, revealed that close to half of the towns in Quebec do not have up-to-date fire safety cover plans, which exposes them to costly lawsuits and to significant hikes in their insurance policy premiums. These plans are used to forecast staffing requirements for fire services so that they can properly respond to incidents. The Conseil provincial du secteur incendie SPQ-CUPE (CPSI) expressed its profound concern with the facts reported by the journalist.
The union representing many firefighters in Quebec has been monitoring this important issue for several months. It hopes that this investigation will prompt the Quebec Ministry of Public Security to perform an urgent review of fire safety regulations and procedures.
“Our organization and our fire safety partners have been demanding for quite some time that all citizens in Quebec are able to receive effective fire safety services to contend with the numerous challenges they are facing every day,” said Alain Caron, interim president of CPSI.
CPSI representatives are obviously concerned about the safety of their members and want to ensure that a sufficient number of responders are mobilized to respond to all types of incidents that could affect the buildings they are meant to protect. They are also hoping to be able to assess the risks that the general public and firefighters all across Quebec could be exposed to when an incident takes place, which is an impossible task if the fire safety cover plans are obsolete.
The Conseil provincial du secteur incendie SPQ-CUPE will continue representations to ensure compliance with Bill 14 and will follow-up on the situation reported by Radio-Canada with the Quebec government and the Ministry of Public Security.