Bill 169 2009

An Act to amend the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 with respect to firefighters

Note: This Act amends the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997.  For the legislative history of the Act, see the Table of Consolidated Public Statutes – Detailed Legislative History at www.e-Laws.gov.on.ca.

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

   1.  (1)  Section 15.1 of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 is amended by adding the following subsection:

Presumptions re: firefighters, etc.

   (0.1)  In this section,

"fire department" means a group of firefighters authorized to provide fire protection services by a municipality, group of municipalities or by an agreement made under section 3 of the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997; ("service d'incendie")

"firefighter" means a fire chief and any other person employed in, or appointed to, a fire department and assigned to undertake fire protection services, and includes a volunteer firefighter; ("pompier")

"fire protection services" includes fire suppression, fire prevention, fire safety education, communication, training of persons involved in the provision of fire protection services, rescue and emergency services and the delivery of all those services; ("services de protection contre les incendies")

"volunteer firefighter" means a firefighter who provides fire protection services either voluntarily or for a nominal consideration, honorarium, training or activity allowance. ("pompier volontaire")

   (2)  Subsections 15.1 (1) and (4) of the Act are repealed and the following substituted:

Heart injury

   (1)  If a firefighter or if a worker prescribed under clause (8) (a) sustains an injury to the heart in circumstances prescribed under clause (8) (c), the injury is presumed to be a personal injury arising out of and in the course of the worker's employment as a firefighter or fire investigator, unless the contrary is shown.

.     .     .     .     .

Occupational disease

   (4)  If a firefighter or if a worker prescribed under clause (8) (a) suffers from and is impaired by a disease prescribed under clause (8) (d), the disease is presumed to be an occupational disease that occurs as a result of the nature of the worker's employment as a firefighter or fire investigator, unless the contrary is shown.

   (3)  Clauses 15.1 (8) (a) and (b) of the Act are repealed and the following substituted:

  (a)  prescribing fire investigators, other workers or classes of fire investigators or other workers as workers to whom subsection (1) or (4) applies;

  (b)  defining "fire investigator";

   (4)  Subsection 15.1 (9) of the Act is repealed.

Commencement

   2.  This Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.

Short title

   3.  The short title of this Act is the Workplace Safety and Insurance Amendment Act (Firefighters), 2009.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Bill amends the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997. Section 15.1 of the Act contains presumptions that if a worker who is prescribed by the regulations made under the Act sustains an injury to the heart or is impaired by a disease, the injury or disease is presumed to have arisen out of the worker's employment as a firefighter or fire investigator. At present, under the regulations, the presumptions apply only to full-time firefighters. The Bill would make the presumptions applicable to all firefighters, including volunteer firefighters, without the need to make a regulation. A regulation can still make the presumptions apply to fire investigators or other workers or still impose conditions and restrictions on the presumptions.