The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC) is warning Canada’s escalating trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump could impact fire departments around the nation to the tune of billions, severely impacting fire departments’ ability to access critical fire and emergency equipment for the impending 2025 fire season.
Applied to municipal fire departments, countervailing tariffs to Trump’s 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods would hurt fire departments keeping essential equipment up-to-date and able to fight fire, said CAFC president and Red Deer Chief of Emergency Services Ken McMullen.
“We are facing an unprecedented situation where our ability to protect Canadians from fires and other emergencies is being threatened by what’s in federal policy blind-spots,” he said, asking for either an exemption on fire and emergency equipment from retaliatory tariffs or alternate solution and the immediate creation of a National Fire Administration to manage the consequences of federal policy intentions in areas from tariffs to wildfires.
Many of Canada’s 3,200 fire departments are already facing backlogs, already battered by inflation and supply-chain issues with delivery delays stretching into years.
Nearly 60 per cent of the nation’s fire departments have deferred equipment purchases for more than two years.
Some 20 per cent of all fire departments rely on outdated equipment that no longer meets industry standards.
“These tariffs will only exacerbate these challenges,” McMullen said.
“Some right now that have apparatus in the production line are now hearing that if these tariffs go through, the cost of that apparatus will be increased by $300,000 and quite frankly, municipalities aren’t prepared for that. It’s not that we can turn around and just go ask for $300,000 more for one truck, let alone municipalities that are purchasing five or 10 trucks a year … That is why this number is going to hit the hundreds of millions and billions, if we don’t address it,” McMullen said.
“As we start to add up all of the components that would be impacted by a tariff, it’s a number that is almost incomprehensible,” McMullen said.
Can’t shop Canadian
The group representing most of the country’s fire departments hailed the process for seeking remissions from tariffs for goods that can’t be sourced domestically.
That’s mostly fire and emergency equipment.
“Roughly 80 per cent of all of the equipment that we utilize, whether that’s personal protective equipment or the nozzles on our hoses, or the hose itself, some of the equipment that we use for collisions, like the Jaws of Life and our hydraulic cutters and spreaders and, of course, apparatus — 80 per cent of that all comes from United States. So when we start thinking about what is the fiscal impact to that, it’s enormous,” McMullen said.
“Departments, from a fiscal responsibilities perspective, are challenged already. We were challenged prior to any of the concerns that were coming in with tariffs. We see the cost of inflation going beyond what municipalities (can handle.)
“We already see the impacts that inflation’s having prior to potential tariff impacts on our equipment. We are very, very concerned about what impact that’s going to have on fire services in Canada,” he said.
Close but no cigar
McMullen said the CAFC appreciates the federal government’s actions in the trade war by loosening the threat of tariffs on America’s partners in the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA).
But the threats have renewed the CAFC’s longstanding pleas for a National Fire Administration.
“Fire departments nationwide strongly believe that a National Fire Administration is crucial to advising on tariff solutions that will ensure the safety of Canadians.”
The CAFC has been on record for years seeking better support for fire departments, McMullen said.
“We’ve been pretty clear, even before the tariff concern came into the light, that there are pinch points within the Canadian fire service that municipalities just are not able to fiscally keep up with the demand as the result of industry changes.”
McMullen said the CAFC’s hopes for a national fire administration were “very close” — but a change in national leadership within the Liberal party — or the ensuing election — has set the idea back for the moment.
“We already have reached out to all candidates running for the leadership of the Liberals, but we weren’t silly enough to not contact all of the other parties within the federal government and to provide our information,” he said.
“And what I can tell you from our conversations with all level of government and with all parties is nobody has told us that this is a bad idea,” McMullen said, calling his group “pragmatic, and not political.”
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