After Victoria Firefighter's union (local 730) raised concerns about Esquimalt firefighters serving as part of VicPD's Crowd Management Team at a Black Lives Matter rally, the Esquimalt union, and the fire chief have now responded.
The Victoria union said they are not supportive of firefighters doing what should be police work, that they aren't trained to do that work, and they don't support another jurisdiction's fire crews acting as part of crowd control in Victoria. They also said the issue has been ongoing for years.
Esquimalt's Fire Chief, Chris Jancowski, responds that his members were there to support the Greater Victoria Crowd Management Unit as medics, adding they have no enforcement or crowd control role. Jancowski says Esquimalt fire department members have been a part of the regional unit since a pilot in 2017 and serve several communities in the region.
The president of Esquimalt Firefighter's Association, Local 4262, Andrew Zado says his members were deployed to support the unit at the direction of the employer, who signed on to the team. But Zado is clear his members have not, and will not, perform police work, and are there only to act as medics if an officer is injured.
Zado also says the concern needs to be resolved between management of Victoria and Esquimalt Fire Departments -- adding the matter is beyond the union's control. He also agreed Victoria Fire Fighters should be performing the work in their City.
Meantime VicPD spokesman, Bowen Ososko, says the structure of the Greater Victoria team is similar to Vancouver's Public Safety Unit (PSU) who also have firefighters imbedded in the team. Osoko says the rationale for including fire medics stems from recommendations made after the Stanley Cup Riots, which suggested exploring the use of Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service members as part of the PSU.
Osoko confirms the Esquimalt fire medics are currently the only fire agency involved, but he says other municipal fire agencies have expressed interest in joining, and agreements in principle are in progress.