On March 10 the Ontario provincial legislature passed the following motion concerning mandatory retirement for all firefighters over the age of 60.
 
Motion passed in legislature
.....in the opinion of this House, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, in recognition of the role Ontario’s firefighters play every day in keeping our communities safe, and in recognition of the evidence of health and safety risks to firefighters over the age of 60, and in keeping with recent Human Rights Tribunal decisions, calls on the government to introduce legislation allowing for the mandatory retirement of firefighters who are involved in fire suppression activities in the province of Ontario.
 
Carried 36-0 with support from all parties
 
Although the goal of this motion is commendable it may create operational problems and have cost implications for your fire department.
 
The Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs met with the Ministry of Labour to express a number of concerns with this proposal to provincially mandate a retirement age for suppression firefighters over the age of 60.
 
1.  Not all municipalities are the same. If the province decides to pursue mandatory retirement for firefighters we suggest that they give municipalities flexibility by making the establishment of a retirement age permissive i.e. let municipalities decide and negotiate what works for them rather than provincially mandating one rule for all. Municipalities should be able to negotiate or establish the retirement age that works for them and which they can incorporate it in their collective agreement or in their establishing and regulating by-law.

2.  It is too difficult to define and categorize firefighters as suppression or non suppression for purposes of this type of legislation. Firefighters in support roles, fire prevention, training and even the Chief Officers may be called upon to be an active participant at a fire scene. 

3.  Full time and volunteer firefighters should be treated the same in provincial legislation. They are trained to the same standard, they face the same dangers and they often work side by side at incidents in composite fire departments and as part of the mutual aid system.

4.  The Office of the Fire Marshal has identified that volunteer fire departments across Ontario are experiencing challenges with the recruitment and retention of Volunteer Firefighters. Mandatory retirement at age 60 will have a large impact on volunteer departments. It is estimated that approximately 6% of the 19,100 volunteer firefighters in Ontario are over the age of 60. In many smaller municipalities these firefighters may be the only people available to respond to emergency calls during the day. Full time fire departments are also impacted but to a smaller extent as over 1% of the 10,900 full time firefighters are over the age of 60.  

5.  Mandatory retirement will have a bigger impact on the management and leadership of volunteer fire departments as it is estimated that approximately 11% of their officers are above the age of 60. In full time departments over 3% of the officers are over the age of 60. These people represent a significant portion of the knowledge and leadership of their fire departments.

6.  If a fire department chooses to establish a mandatory retirement age then the employer should be exempted from the requirements of ‘duty to accommodate’ beyond the retirement age.

7.  Not all fire departments have an NRA 60 pension plan. There would be a significant cost to the employer and to the employees to convert from an NRA 65 plan to a NRA 60 plan.

The OAFC reiterated to the Ministry of Labour that they need to take their time to fully explore this issue before introducing legislation. They need to identify the impacts, consequences and costs of this proposed legislative change. We ask the Government of Ontario to conduct the appropriate analysis and to consult with the municipal employers and the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs prior to taking any legislative action.
 
If your municipality will be negatively impacted by this proposal we recommend that you inform your Council and suggest that they send a letter to the Minister of Labour outlining their concerns.