Earlier this month, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents wildland firefighters in the province, announced that they had created a new website.
The website, found at aupe.org/wildlandfirefighters, highlights the staffing crisis facing the provinces ’s wildland firefighters.
According to the new website, “the Alberta government is struggling to find enough trained and experienced workers and to retain the seasonal workers they have trained”.
In fact, the site claims that over 50% of the seasonal firefighters who fought last year’s wildfires haven’t returned this year, with many finding work for other agencies, such as with Parks Canada or next door in British Columbia.
It’s not surprising, given that the starting wage for seasonal wildland firefighters is 22–33% lower than their fellow workers in other jurisdictions.
Not only that, but unlike their municipal counterparts, wildland firefighters don’t receive presumptive coverage from Workers’ Compensation Board — Alberta for cancer treatment.
WCBA presumes that if municipal firefighters get cancer, it’s likely from the job. As a result, they’ll approve related WCB benefits without those firefighters needing to prove that they got cancer from work.
Seasonal firefighters, on the other hand, must prove that any cancer they get came from fighting fires in order to qualify for WCB benefits.
This staffing crisis is leading to inexperienced firefighters—with only a year or two of work under their belt—leading firefighting crews.
This could lead to inefficient firefighting and increase risk to worker safety. Plus, it can lead to worker burnout and stress, as workers are expected to do more than they are ready for.
Last year’s crews were already understaffed, forcing the Alberta government to reallocate workers from their Natural Resources department.
Plus, the province had to hire over 300 contractors and bring in over 4,200 firefighters from around the world, according to the 2024–2025 budget.
Missing more than half of their seasonal workers this year, in already understaffed crews, is asking for disaster.
AUPE blames the current staffing crisis on years of government underfunding, and they’re asking the public to contact MLAs to properly fund wildland firefighting in the province.
“Wildland firefighters are angry,” said James Gault, said one of AUPE’s vice-presidents in the union’s announcement. “They’re tired of being ignored. The government won’t listen to them, so we are calling on Albertans to speak out on their behalf.”
