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House Hansard - 266

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 12, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 266 - Dec/12/23
Mr. Mario Beaulieu (La Pointe-de-l'Île, BQ)
  • Dec/12/23 6:19:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, anyone who has experienced a major fire knows how vital firefighters' expertise and specialized equipment are in situations where, often, every second counts. That is why it is not surprising to learn that, according to a 2021 Leger poll, firefighter is the most trustworthy profession, trusted by 95% of respondents. Politicians are trusted by only 31% of the population. All of the members here will agree that all air travellers deserve safe landings at Quebec and Canadian airports. However, according to the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees, over the years, Transport Canada has allowed airports to reduce service standards to the bare minimum. In some instances, there are only one or two firefighters on call while planes carrying hundreds of passengers are taking off and landing. Transport Canada has been warned about this many times over the years. Unfortunately, those warnings have gone unheeded until now. When the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees shared its concerns about the problems with the regulations that impact airport firefighting, Transport Canada advised that their primary concern is the financial viability of the airports. The International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents over 23,000 professional firefighters, concluded that significant regulatory shortfalls concerning emergency responses at Canada's major airports are needlessly putting the safety of the flying public at risk. Of note is the fact that the regulations fail to specify rescue as a required function of airport firefighters. The Canadian aviation regulations, or CARs, require only that firefighters reach the midpoint of the furthest runway in three minutes rather than all points on operational runways within that time period. That means the response time for an accident at the end of a runway will be a lot longer. The CARs do not take into account certain rescue and firefighting standards published by the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, a United Nations agency that helps 193 countries. ICAO is the global forum of states for international civil aviation. It develops policies and standards, undertakes compliance audits, and performs studies and analyses. It provides assistance and builds aviation capacity through the co-operation of its member states and stakeholders. Its head office is in Montreal. According to ICAO, firefighters at major Canadian airports should have the resources they need, as has already been mentioned, to reach the site of a fire or mishap anywhere on a runway in three minutes or less. As my colleague said earlier, three minutes is how long a plane can withstand flames before they melt the fuselage and spread everywhere, from one end to the other. Let us not forget that between 12,000 and 220,000 litres of fuel are stored under passengers' feet. As is the case when there is a fire in a building, the main cause of death in an aircraft fire is smoke. Airport firefighters must be able to interact directly on board the aircraft in the event of a fire. The Bloc Québécois supports this motion because the fire safety standards set out in the CARs have not undergone a major review since the regulations took effect in 1996. We are asking Transport Canada to review the CARs, and we are supporting the demands of firefighters in order to prevent a tragedy from occurring in one of our airports. The current regulations do not specify that firefighters have a duty to attempt a rescue if a fire breaks out inside a plane. They are only obligated to extinguish the flames with water or foam in hopes that the passengers will be able to evacuate the aircraft themselves. It is frankly absurd. They are supposed to wait for firefighters from neighbouring municipalities to arrive, yet municipal firefighters do not have the response times or training required to respond quickly and effectively to aircraft emergencies in restricted areas. Equipment, training and travel time requirements increase the risk of tragedy. Moreover, simply hosing down the area, as currently prescribed, no longer meets ICAO standards. Firefighters should have the option of intervening directly, when the situation allows, obviously, by climbing aboard the aircraft to rescue passengers in difficulty and extinguishing fires at the source. By adapting the CARs to meet ICAO standards, we will ensure that all airports meet the highest safety standards. I should note that, at present, there is nothing to stop an airport from adopting higher standards than the CARs. The result is uneven fire safety standards from one airport to the next. For example, according to the Montreal airport, firefighters must be able to respond in less than three minutes, regardless of the location of the incident on airport property. Obviously, covering all runways in less than three minutes means more vehicles, more buildings and, of course, more firefighters, which means more resources. ICAO indicates that the regulations must establish a minimum number of firefighters on duty based on airport size, so that the travel time requirement can be met at all times. The International Association of Fire Fighters points out that firefighters are required to carry out regular inspection and response tasks that take up part of their team's time. That is why it is imperative to properly assess firefighting personnel needs. For example, the Montreal and Mirabel airports each have their own fire station in the immediate vicinity of the runways. Each fire station has four teams of firefighters who work in shifts to provide 24-7 protection. The Aéroports de Montréal fire service has its own training centre for conducting aircraft fire simulations and for training firefighters to respond to situations involving aircraft that contain highly explosive or flammable fuel. According to the Aéroports de Montréal firefighting unit, the additional costs of bringing the CARs up to ICAO standards could be covered by a surcharge of less than a $1 per passenger. A dollar per passenger is a small price to pay for safety. Additional resources are justified because even though aviation accidents are rare, the amount of fuel and the large number of passengers that the planes carry call for higher safety standards to be imposed. It can mean the difference between a terrible tragedy and an impressive rescue. We really need to take action and adopt this motion. We need to move quickly. It is a matter of not only recognizing firefighters, but also allowing them to have the tools they need to do their job properly.
1077 words
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