Senator Yussuff: Thank you very kindly for your question. I think you address one of the most fundamental challenges that firefighters, and their families, face when they get ill as a result of their work. Because, of course, the provinces, to a large extent, establish workers’ compensation systems, it is for them to adapt their system to recognize these carcinogens have a critical impact on the lives of these workers when they go to work. Of course, we don’t have consistency across the country.

It is mind-boggling today that in some jurisdictions, 29 of the carcinogens are recognized for what they are. In other places, it’s 9 or 16 or fewer than that.

So the reality is, of course, that the firefighters who are lucky enough to live where an enlightened province or territory has taken the decision to add more carcinogens to the list of carcinogens that workers can be impacted by in terms of their work will get workers’ compensation benefits should they get sick, but in many places, they fall between the cracks.

Within the federal jurisdiction, as you know, there is no workers’ compensation system. I would say it would be unwise to put an amendment in the bill and somehow think that will motivate the provinces. It would be critical for the federal government to try to bring the provinces and the territories together, for one, to show what some of the provinces and territories are doing, which is very positive and enlightening, but also to recognize that other provinces should acknowledge that this is the direction they need to go in.

I know in your own territory, you have done the most in regard to recognizing carcinogens, and that is a result of enlightened political leadership. In some provinces, we have a distance to go.

Many firefighters who are dying as a result of these carcinogen-related cancers are hopeful that in the near future all provinces and territories will adopt a common standard of how they treat workers when they get ill and, more importantly, of course, provide them the compensation they need, recognizing that giving compensation does not resolve the issue of dying from a carcinogen, which is a bigger challenge we have to face. How do we prevent those carcinogens from getting into our society? More importantly, how do we ensure the equipment these workers are using when they go into buildings and homes to fight fires is not making them sick when they come home to their families?