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Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness

Sherry Romanado

  • Member of Parliament
  • Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness
  • Liberal
  • Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne
  • Quebec
  • Voting Attendance: 67%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $117,520.90

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 90 - Jun/16/22
Mrs. Sherry Romanado (Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, Lib.)
Madam Speaker, I was not expecting the speeches tonight. I want to thank my husband Chris and my father Dave who are firefighters, my friend Chris Ross, and firefighters in Montreal and Longueuil for bringing this issue to us. There are now 338 members of Parliament who know that firefighting causes cancer. I am sure each and every one of us learned something over the course of this debate, and for that I am so thankful, because that is what this bill is about. It is about bringing awareness not only to firefighters, but to their families and the doctors who treat them so they know to ask those questions. The member for Barrie—Innisfil had it right. He knows to ask about the firefighter in rural Canada who does not know not to put his bunker gear in the back of the car because it is contaminated. That is what this is about. This is about bringing the provinces, territories, indigenous communities and members of the Canadian Armed Forces who served as firefighters together to share that information. The provinces and territories need to share all their information. For example, one province recognizes 19 cancers, while another recognizes only nine. What information can they share with us? At the end of the day, the provinces and territories have the final say. I want to explain it very clearly to my friends in the Bloc: The purpose of this bill is to save lives, full stop. I will not apologize for wanting to save lives. A lot of my colleagues here who have had a chance to work with me know that I am a kind of pratico-pratique kind of gal. I like to GSD, or get “stuff” done, because I do not want to use unparliamentary language. We were sent here to do things, and this is something we need to do. We need to bring together our colleagues at every level of government to say: “How are we going to beat this? How are we going to prevent cancer in firefighters?” Right now, when a firefighter passes, God forbid, depending on where they live, they may or may not be eligible for the memorial grant that we put in place, yet they may have died from the same cancer from doing the same job, and that is not fair. To the firefighters watching, and some are here in Ottawa right now, I thank them. To the firefighters watching at home, I thank them. I thank their families who fear for them every time that bell goes off, and even worse, fear this is the year they will get that diagnosis, because that is the real killer. Our government has put in place initiatives, whether changing the national building codes or looking at toxic chemicals in flame retardants on sofas, but there is more to do. We need to share that information, because before this, I am sure some of us did not know. All of those young boys and girls who want to become firefighters need to know about this so that they can take the proper precautions, so that they can make sure to decontaminate after a fire, and so that they can make sure to tell their doctors that they are firefighters and to ask for those tests. What are the tests that provinces are using? This is what I am talking about with this bill. It is about sharing information about the tests and so on. How do we prevent this from happening, and how do we support those who put their lives on the line every single time that bell goes off?
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Context: House Hansard - 30 - Feb/14/22
Mrs. Sherry Romanado (Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, Lib.)
  • Feb/14/22 6:50:09 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Re: Bill C-10 
Madam Speaker, I would like my colleague to elaborate a little bit in terms of the need in his home province for these rapid tests. I myself know that in the province of Quebec it was pretty tough to get them during the Christmas holidays when the peak of omicron was hitting the province. Why is it so important to support the provinces and territories with respect to the need for these rapid tests and for them to be able to deploy them?
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