November 6, 2008

The Hon. Jim Flaherty
Minister of Finance
House of Commons
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6

Dear Minister Flaherty,

Congratulations on your re-election as MP for Whitby-Oshawa and your re-appointment as Minister of Finance. I know that the best interests of your constituents and of all Canadians will be your guide as you carry out your important duties during the 40th Session of Parliament.

The International Association of Fire Fighters represents 20,500 professional fire fighters in Canada. Our members protect the lives of more than 80 per cent of Canadians and the property and infrastructure in 170 of the largest cities and towns across eight provinces and two territories.

As you know, the IAFF conducts a grassroots legislative affairs program that makes the Government of Canada and individual members of parliament aware of issues in the federal jurisdiction that are important to professional fire fighters.

I wish to raise one of these important issues with you; the need to amend the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to grant earlier access to benefits for fire fighters, particularly for the minority of professional fire fighters who do not qualify for pension equity under existing Income Tax Act regulations which specify that members of public safety occupations can benefit from an increased annual pension accrual rate.

Fire fighting is a dangerous and physically demanding occupation. In the course of their duties, fire fighters are required to perform extremely strenuous tasks, enter confined spaces in burning structures, endure exposure to burning toxic chemicals and suffer exposure to communicable diseases. More recently, there is growing awareness and recognition that fire fighters suffer an increased risk of certain cancers as a direct result of their occupation.

Because fire fighting is a physically demanding and dangerous job, early retirement for fire fighters has long been accepted as being in the best interests of fire fighters and the public they serve. Accordingly, Canada’s Income Tax Act regulations identify fire fighting as one of six Public Safety Occupations who are permitted to retire early, at age 55, and specify that fire fighters whose pension plans are integrated with the CPP can benefit from an annual pension accrual rate of 2.33 per cent.

A fire fighter who has spent a career in the line of danger on behalf of the public is deserving of an equitable pension in their retirement. But a fire fighter retiring at age 55 does not currently have the ability to make CPP contributions from age 55 to 60, even though this five-year period is within the definition of their contributory period. Without any mechanism for pension equity, a fire fighter retiring early at age 55 will typically have a retirement income of 60 per cent of their pre-retirement earnings, which is well below the benchmark of 70 per cent for working Canadians.

The CPP “drop-out” provision that allows a worker to exclude their five years of lowest earnings from their CPP calculations applies equally to all workers and does not practicably help fire fighters catch up to other workers in terms of equitable retirement income.

Fire fighters whose pension plans are not integrated with the CPP and are not assisted by the accrual rate regulation can have access to an equitable pension through direct changes to the CPP itself; specifically, through amendments that would enable them to receive reduced CPP benefits at age 55 and unreduced benefits at age 60. Typically, this will help them achieve the 70 per cent pre-retirement income benchmark.

We ask you to examine this issue closely and in the name of fairness, to set in motion the actions necessary to amend the Canada Pension Plan to specify that professional fire fighters can have access to earlier CPP benefits.

The IAFF will be raising this and other federal legislative issues throughout the 40th Session of Parliament. I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you in Ottawa to discuss this issues face to face and answer any questions that you might have.

In addition, the IAFF will be holding our 16th Canadian Legislative Conference in April, 2009 in Ottawa. During the conference, professional fire fighters from across Canada will be coming to Ottawa to meet with their MPs to discus this and other issues of importance. I expect that many of your parliamentary colleagues will ask you to act on this issue as a direct result of our conference and I appreciate the attention and consideration you will give them in advance.

Please do not hesitate to contact the IAFF Canadian Office anytime we can be of assistance to you during the 40th Session of Parliament and thank you for considering this issue of importance to Canada’s professional fire fighters.

Sincerely yours,

Jim Lee
Assistant to the General President for Canadian Operations