Thursday, February 10, 2011

Hot off the press

MP John Rafferty introduced a motion in Parliament this week in support of volunteer firefighters. I would love to say that this will change the world, and more importantly, prompt our government to provide tangible support to volunteer firefighters across the country. I would love to say that all of our venerated MP's will smack their foreheads and say, "Why didn't we think of doing that?" and "Wow, we'd better get right on this and set aside a few billion dollars for volunteer fire departments in the 2011 budget."

But you know I'm not going to say that because even if the motion passes, it has no teeth, and no mechanism to actually provide the support that it calls for. But it is a good first step, and I do appreciate Mr. Rafferty stepping up to the plate for us. And it might not be all in vain. He said that at least it will put the issue in the spotlight, and possibly pave the way for future legislation that will have teeth and provide tangible support.

Here is the motion:
Mr. Rafferty (Thunder Bay—Rainy River) — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should consider providing funding to volunteer fire departments across Canada, working with provincial and municipal governments to ensure that these departments receive sufficient operational funding, and, if no agreement can be reached with necessary governments, the government should immediately move to create another funding stream accessible to volunteer fire departments that do not infringe on provincial jurisdictions.

And here is a link to the press release that accompanies it.

Write your MP in support of this!

2 comments:

  1. Next time I come up to your great country, I'm going to bring my turnouts and be volunteer for a day with your department.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you are really lucky, you might even get to go on a call. But you'd have to be really lucky. We only get about 35 a year . . .

    ReplyDelete

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