Halifax firefighters support NDP cancer bill, but labour minister does not

The political fight for expanded cancer coverage is a personal one for Halifax firefighter Brendan Meagher.

"Every firefighter knows a firefighter that has cancer," he told reporters. "And in my 22 years I've watched many of my co-workers die from cancer."

The president of theHalifax Professional Firefighters Association stood outside the legislative chamber Friday to offer his support to an NDP bill, tabled in the House, that would triple the number of cancers that would be considered a workplace-related injury automatically.

"We lost a member earlier this year from the Halifax professional firefighters with a type of cancer that's not covered," said Meagher. "It's heartbreaking."

Under current rules, a firefighterwho is diagnosed with a cancer in the brain, colon, bladder or kidney, or has leukemiaor non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and has worked from five-to-20 years, can make a claim for workers' compensation benefits because theirform of cancer is considered a workplace-related injury.

MLA Tammy Martin's bill would add a dozen more cancers presumed to be acquired on the job including:

• ureteral cancer.
• penile cancer.
• testicular cancer.
• breast cancer.
• prostate cancer.
• ovarian cancer.
• skin cancer.

In all those cases a firefighter would have had to have worked a minimum of 10 years.

Martin said it is time to update the list.

"We should be offering presumptive coverage for firefighters for what they do every day," she said. "They deserve to have this coverage. We need to look after them the way they look after us."

Kousouliswants Act overhauled

Labour Minister Labi Kousoulisadmitted what Martin was asking for was reasonable, but he is looking to overhaul the Workers' Compensation Act, not simply amend it.

"I can sit there and do this piecemeal or we can do it all at once," he said.

"We are lagging [behind] the rest of the country in terms of the cancer coverageand I am very well aware of that," said Kousoulis.

But he said his focus was on making sure all firefighters across the province were properly covered.

"I'm looking at the broader picture," he said.

Kousoulis said the plan was to expand thelistto 17 cancers, but given the rest of the work involved in overhauling the Act it could take up to another year to get it done.

"We need to act soon," Meaghersaid in response.

"Firefighters deserve that financial security, knowing that if they get sick doing their job, just as if they broke their leg or had a fall, that they should be covered for this work-relatedillness."

Workers' compensation benefits include sick pay, long-term disability payments,as well as $20,000 in death benefits and support payments for survivors and children to the age of 25.

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