Bill would end lawsuits against firefighters
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | 9:39 AM MT
CBC News
A proposal that would stop insurance companies from suing municipal fire departments in the province passed second reading at the Alberta legislature Tuesday.
"Firefighters, they don't pull back anything," said Edmonton Castle Downs MLA Thomas Lukaszuk, who proposed Bill 49. "They run into a fire when people run out of a fire. They do what they possibly can to first preserve lives, second preserve properties.
Fires are often followed years later by lawsuits against fire departments and municipalities to recover losses. (CBC)"But … a couple of years after a fire is put out lawsuits begin, and very often they're on the receiving end of lawsuits, where they have to testify in front of lawyers arguing their case that they did all that they could, and it costs municipalities dollars."
In the case of Edmonton, those costs were $35 million in 2008, said Randy Wolsey, a former fire chief in Edmonton, who was instrumental in getting the issue before the legislature.
"We didn't create the emergency," Wolsey said. "We're responding to help someone, and in the end there are some losses that are encountered as a result of the emergency, and then the insurance companies attempt to recover those losses."
Insurance policies contain clauses that obligate the person who has suffered losses in a fire to help recover those losses. So the suit is initiated by the property owner, using the insurance company's legal resources.
Former fire chief Randy Wolsey has been working for five years to get legislation to end insurance lawsuits against fire departments and municipalities. (CBC)Most often, the municipality and fire departments are named in the suit because they have the resources to pay the claim. That does more than tax the financial resources of the fire departments, Wolsey said.
"My worry was — as they attend examination for discovery in court and they get beat up by the various lawyers in those court cases, because it isn't a fun thing to do to be examined — that they would start to second-guess what they are doing and wouldn't be as effective as a fire service."
Insurance companies back bill
Lukaszuk said his bill has the support of insurance companies.
"When I told them, 'How do you think the public would perceive that you're suing firefighters,' they saw the wisdom in the bill, and right now they are endorsing the bill," Lukaszuk said.
"Insurance companies and fire departments have a long history of working together," said Jeff Haley, manager of government relations with the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
"The first fire departments were actually funded by insurance companies, and so through that history and though sort of the sensible approach that this legislation takes, it's the right thing to do."
Haley said he didn't expect the new rules would bring a significant increase in insurance premiums.
Saskatchewan and Quebec have similar legislation to Bill 49, which got second reading Tuesday and is expected to be passed during this legislative session.
