40th Parliament, 3rd Session

Edited Hansard • Number 025
Wednesday, April 14, 2010

STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Firefighters

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, I hope we can take a moment today to pay tribute to Canada's firefighters.

During a recent meeting with the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, I was shocked to hear that the vast majority of volunteer fire departments are having trouble recruiting and maintaining their memberships.

The Canadian fire services include 3,492 fire departments and more than 90% of them are volunteer departments. In fact, of Canada's 108,000 firefighters, some 85,000 are volunteers.

I believe that this government will keep Canada's emergency service personnel vibrant and well equipped.

The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs presented our government with the 2010 agenda for action and I hope we will support this agenda to an extent that is practical during these difficult economic times.

Our government recognizes the excellent services Canadians receive from our firefighters. We owe it to them to carefully examine the 2010 agenda for action to protect ourselves and future generations.

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For the audio version of Garry's statement, click here