Bill 9 amended the Workers’ Compensation Act to expand presumptive cancer coverage to all firefighters who served during the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire.
Alberta’s governing UCP is rejecting calls from Opposition New Democrats to amend a bill before MLAs that expands presumptive cancer coverage to all firefighters who served during the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfires.
The government’s Bill 9 — the Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, 2023 — was tabled in the legislature last week and could be debated in second reading sometime this week.
The bill removes the current latency periods, or the number of years that a firefighter has been on the job.
That change will only take effect on the date of royal assent, should the bill be passed.
On Monday, NDP labour critic Christina Gray said she planned to propose amendments to the bill that would mean those protections would be offered retroactively.
“What the UCP have brought forward fails to meet the needs of firefighters on a number of fronts,” Gray said at a Monday news conference.
“The last thing that (firefighters) need or that their families need is to have to worry about whether they will have Workers’ Compensation Board coverage or not.”
Gray said she also wanted to expand the number of cancers covered by the legislation and to also add respiratory illnesses to the list of conditions.
Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally indicated his party would reject those amendments, and called on the NDP to support the legislation as it stands.
“The issue of retroactivity is that it opens up a host of other issues,” he told reporters.
“It won’t just be for Fort McMurray, it could then be applied to everything. So it comes with some challenges.”
He said retroactivity is currently an issue in only two cases, although that number could increase in the years to come,
“We are confident that those two can be dealt with through a fairness process review.”
Alberta Professional Fire Fighters and Paramedics Association president Matt Osborne spoke in favour of the bill when it was announced last Wednesday but on Monday he joined the NDP to back the call for retroactivity.
“We need to make sure that firefighters who are already battling cancer and these issues are looked after equally,” he said, adding that Bill 9 represents “a big step forward.”
“It is difficult enough when you’re battling cancer, and then at the same time you also need to prove a WCB claim to look after you and your family.”