Chief Joshua Snyder of the Smiths Cove Volunteer Fire Department has started a petition to bring attention to the lack of legislation to protect volunteer firefighters and ground search and rescue crews from job loss and discipline, if they leave to attend an emergency.
“Some people have said to me, ‘if I can’t leave work for a fire call, then what the point of volunteering?’ – that’s disturbing,” he said.
Recruiting volunteer firefighters in some rural communities in Nova Scotia is a challenge; another obstacle is the lack of job protection for the essential first responders.
“Some people have had to find different places to work in order to stay a volunteer. If they leave their work, they're going to lose their job or someone faces getting written up,” said Snyder.
Snyder says employers are encouraged to do the right thing, and a lot do, but some employers do not and when Nova Scotians at their worst need volunteers.
Danny Cavanagh is the president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour and a retired volunteer firefighter of 33 years.
“We've been advocating for changes to labour standards in this province for a bit now. Our labour standards in this province are very old and archaic,” said Cavanagh.
Cavanagh says it's about time changes are made, especially at a time when it’s getting harder and harder to get volunteers to show up.
“Whatever the province can do to make it easier to ensure they can fill their rosters would be welcoming by many fire departments in the province,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration says they're aware of the concerns being raised with respect to greater protection for first responders, but didn't tell CTV News what, if anything, they're going do about it.
