OPSEU renews calls for reclassification of wildland firefighters

The province of Ontario is providing $64 million to its wildland fire program to support hiring and training of staff, and equipment purchases, but the union representing wildland firefighters says more support is needed.

The province announced the funding this week, saying it would be used to "hire and train key personnel and fund the purchase of new support equipment and technology, including fuel systems, tankers, trucks and software systems."

However, Noah Freedman, fire crew leader and local vice-president with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), said the province needs to take further action to ensure fire crews are property staffed.

"It's a very common tactic that the government's been using, with single investments rather than increase of budgets," he said. "One thing that we've been calling on for quite a long time now is to have our budget increased, and to also reclassify wildland firefighters so that they're actually recognized as firefighters."

"I don't really see how $64 million is going to help the province hire and train key personnel, as they say, when we've been putting forward a single solution for that for quite some time now."

Freedman said Ontario's wildland firefighters are currently classed as resource technicians, which he said doesn't recognize the danger and sacrifices the firefighters make.

Reclassifying them as firefighters, the union said, would allow them to be better compensated; the current starting wage for a resource technician in Ontario is about $25 an hour.

"We've already heard directly from Caroline Mulroney's staff at the Treasury Board that we could be reclassified with the stroke of a pen," Freedman said. "It's really up to Caroline Mulroney and Doug Ford and the will of the government to do this."

The province told CBC News in June that the classification of wildland firefighters was under review, but no timeline was provided.