Saskatchewan forest firefighting crews among the best

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With more than half of Saskatchewan's land mass covered in forest, the men and women whose job it is to fight forest fires in the province have a huge responsibility.

In the past when forest fires broke out in Northern Saskatchewan, it was members of the areas First Nation and Metis communities that took on the challenge of fighting the blazes. That is still the case today, with Aboriginal people making up the majority of the province's forest fire suppression crews.

There are 54 Aboriginal crews working in Northern Saskatchewan-36 from First Nations and another 18 from Metis communities. All the crews are co-ordinated through Saskatchewan Environment's Fire Control Section.

Leo Gardiner is Aboriginal program development specialist with the section. He oversees the First Nations Fire Suppression program and the Northern Forest Protection Worker Training program, a similar program for Metis people. Under the two programs, which have been in place since 1992, Saskatchewan Environment enters into contracts with the participating First Nation and Metis communities, partnering with the communities in the provision of forest fire suppression services.

The Aboriginal communities select the members who will take part in the programs. Those members will spend part of their summer as employees of the community, doing community service work. Once they are needed for fire suppression duties or to clear the brush around communities to lessen the risk in case of a fire, they are called in by Saskatchewan Environment and become employees of the department.

The responsibility to provide training to program participants falls to Saskatchewan Environment. Training for First Nation crews is cost-shared between the department and the First Nation. For Metis crews, training is cost-shared between the department, the Metis community, Northlands College and Canada-Saskatchewan Career and Employment Services.

"We train them to a type 2 level, which means they're qualified to fight fire anywhere in Canada and, of course, internationally if they're needed," Gardiner said.

"We've had crews go to the States and to other provinces-ntario and Alberta and British Columbia, and last year we had some crews go to the Yukon."

While the communities decide who to select for the programs, candidates have to meet certain criteria set out by Saskatchewan Environment, Gardiner explained.

"We ask for at least a Grade 10 level of education. That's very important because they do work with equipment and they should be able to read and write proficiently. They do have to write reports, especially the crew leaders.

"They have to be physically fit. They do have to pass a physical fitness test each spring in order to qualify as a crew member. And if they fail or are in poor health and we cannot take them, it's for their own good as well as ours," he said.

While candidates with little or no firefighting experience have been accepted into the programs, people with experience are preferred, Gardiner said.

"We like to pick people who do have some firefighting experience because we don't want to put them out on the fire line without that," he said. Previous experience is important now more than ever, thanks to recent changes to the province's occupational health and safety regulations that require firefighters to have more training before they tackle any fires.

Participants in the programs work seasonally from spring to fall. Training sessions begin in mid-April before fire season begins.

Getting the training in and getting all members of a crew trained to the same level is one of the biggest challenges of offering the program, Gardiner said. People joining are encouraged to stay in the programs for five years, but that doesn't always happen.

"It's really hard for a lot of them to come back year after year. Some go to better jobs and that's fine, we encourage that. Some take training and they don't have time to come backfor another year. But the intent was to have them for all the five years because we train them and they get better as the program goes along and by the time the five years is up there's nothing they wouldn't be able to do in the forest industry."

Firefighters who stay with the program for the whole five years should have the qualifications to move up into a type 1 firefighter position, Gardiner said. "Those are the main firefighters." Type 1 positions are still seasonal, but type 1 firefighters are unionized, whereas type 2 firefighters aren't.

Even if a person isn't looking for a career as a firefighter, participation in these programs still has a lot to offer, Gardiner said. It gives them a foot in the door to pursue a career in another aspect of resource management. They learn job skills. They learn how to work with others. They learn how to be leaders. And the flexibility offered by a job that lasts for only six months out of the year is also beneficial to individuals who want to take additional training or upgrading in the off season. But for some individuals the fact that involvement in the program provides employment for half the year is benefit enough.

These two fire suppression programs are about to undergo some changes that will likely see the department hand over more control to the First Nation and Metis communities, Gardiner said.

Under the new system, it would be up to the communities to train and employ the firefighters, and the department would contract out for their services as needed, but those types of changes are at least a couple of years down the road, he said.