Ontario fire chiefs back colleague in mandatory-retirement fight
Forcing fire chiefs into retirement at age 60 appears to be illegal, says the association representing more than 600 chiefs and their deputies across Ontario.
“We have talked with our legal counsel on this, and we are of the opinion that the actions to mandate retirement age for a fire chief officer is a contravention” of the Ontario law governing fire services, said Steve Hernen. He is president of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, and serves as chief in Huntsville.
Fire chiefs were taken by surprise this month when the town of Renfrew forced its 61-year-old chief, Guy Longtin, into retirement. Longtin has promised legal action to keep his job.
Ontario cities and towns can require front-line firefighters — but not chiefs — to retire at 60, Hernen said.
“That’s because the hazards of the job that the front-line firefighter is exposed to on a daily basis. There has been well-documented research on that.”
Renfrew argues that because it has a small fire department, its chief will sometimes be called to take command at a fire scene. Renfrew says this makes the chief subject to greater stress than working in a pure management job, and so their chief should retire at 60.
Huntsville works that way too, Hernen says. “When I arrive on a fire scene, which is maybe six times a year, and I’m there in an incident command role, I’m working with my fire officers on the scene” to provide resources and planning.
“I’m still not fighting the fire. … The way I try to explain it in layman’s terms is I’m the hockey coach. They don’t ask me to go out and do a penalty shot; we send our best players out to do that. My job is to strategize as to who are the best players to complete the task and what resources do they need?”
As a result he said he’s not under the same physical strain day after day that his firefighters face.
Since the news of chief Longtin’s forced retirement broke this month, other chiefs have been talking about it a lot, he said.
“This is the first we ever heard of (forced retirement). We certainly heard discussions before with firefighters that didn’t want to retire (who) were forced to retire because of the age requirements. But I have never seen this imposed on a managerial role and that is why our association is watching this so closely right now.
“If this went through” and is upheld in court “then it could have wide effects across Ontario.