Volunteer firefighters could be on the hook for training for 2024, according to the Nova Scotia Firefighters School.
Currently, it costs between $150 and $600 per person per course, according to John Cunningham, the school’s executive director. Volunteer fire departments apply for the funding pool, which cuts down training costs. Otherwise, it would come out of the departments’ budgets, fundraising, or out-of-pocket from the volunteer firefighters themselves.
The provincial government collects a levy from insurance companies — the Nova Scotia Fire Service Automobile Insurance Levy — which is included in the amount that policyholders pay for their insurance policies. The insurance companies then pass on this fee to the government.
The nearly $360,000 program refreshes annually, but an uptick in enrollment for the course depleted the budget within two months. The funding pool won’t reset until December.
“Everyone has limited budgets these days, and they have to prioritize where they’re going to spend. (With) heat, lights and insurance on their fire stations, training tends to fall to the bottom of the list at times,” said Cunningham in an interview with Global News on Wednesday.
The course has come with increasing popularity in recent years, coupled with an increasing desire for the profession, ” said Cunningham. The 2024 budget met with a “small” carryover from 2023, but said this is the first time they’ve depleted their budget, especially this early.
In a letter posted to their Facebook page this week, Cunningham wrote:
“As the course fees and the associated textbooks were presumed to have been covered by the fund at the time of booking, as they had been since 2012, any department or county association wishing to proceed with a previously booked course will be billed for all student registration fees and any required textbooks.”
Since 2012, the program has enrolled nearly 8,400 individuals and had nearly 1,000 firefighters train last year alone.
‘If the province doesn’t kick in, we’re out of money’
The Digby Fire Department chief said that he expects to see fire departments start to shrink without funding for training.
Chief Robert Morgan said his department has been relying on the funds from the levy to help his bottom line. He said it’s become harder to survive with increasing prices in fuel, insurance and maintenance on his facilities.
“If the province doesn’t kick in, we’re out of money, sooner or later we’re out of the business,” he told Global News. “If the province doesn’t continue to help us, we’re going to see department start to shrink and disappear.”
Morgan, said the need has become more critical for his 35 volunteers in the wake of historic wildfires in the area, coupled with increased responsibilities with EHS.
Global News reached out to Nova Scotia’s Emergency Management Office, which did not respond by deadline.
“Taking away funding for training is just causes less and less training they get and they become smaller and smaller and disappear eventually,” said Morgan.
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