The Orangeville Fire Department is supporting a move by East Garafraxa mayor Allen Taylor to bring the two-hatter firefighter issue to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) to ask for their support.

The AMO supports the two-hatters and the town's right to use them. AMO executive director Pat Vanini said the issue is about human rights.

"This is the year 2007 and I don't think anyone expects anyone to negotiate human rights. It should be as unacceptable as it is in most other parts of Canada where legislation has been passed that explicitly protects the right of firefighters to serve as volunteers," she said. "Why is it that Ontario lags behind and will not protect the rights of these individuals?"

In recent years the AMO has supported permitting two-hatters. The organization was behind Ted Arnott, MPP for Waterloo-Wellington when he introduced Bill 30, the Volunteer Firefighters Employment Protection Act, which would have protected firefighters from termination of their employment if they seek to volunteer in areas outside their coverage zone. Mr. Arnott presented the bill in October 2002, but it failed to win government support.

Orangeville fire chief Andy Macintosh said he would support any move that sees the issue moving forward. The Town is currently waiting for the results of a grievance filed against the firefighters union, on grounds the use of two hatters is permitted by the union's current contract with the town.

"My hope is that we'll get other municipalities involved because there are a lot of other municipalities out there that may not be affected right now (but will be), so we need to get everyone involved instead of just one town fighting this issue," said Chief Macintosh.

The chief indicated that the fire department has been working with other municipalities on the twohatter issue. Other councils don't want to make too much noise on the issue, he said, because they have several two-hat firefighters and they don't want too much attention drawn to them. For some areas, if the union found out just how many twohatters there were, they could lose members of their workforce.

The issue has attracted the attention of Dufferin- Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones, who raised the issue of the resignation of seven two-hatter volunteers during Tuesday's Question Period in the Legislature.

Posing her question to Rick Bartolucci, as the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, she told the House:

"In my riding of Dufferin-Caledon, the Orangeville Fire Department has seen the resignation of seven firefighters in one week. The firefighters resigned because they received letters indicating that they were violating the union's constitution by being employed full-time in one department and acting as a volunteer with another. As you are no doubt aware, this is not a new issue. The Honourable George Adams issued a report and recommendations on how to balance the use of double hatter firefighters. Given that this issue impacts many smaller communities across Ontario that rely on volunteers, is your government prepared to implement the Adams report recommendations to ensure that smaller fire departments that rely on volunteers will be able to use and continue to use double-hatters?"

The minister replied: "First of all, I want to congratulate the member on her election and I want to say that she represents a view in her constituency. I want to also inform her that our government has not changed its position and we do not believe that legislation or interference in the collective bargaining process is the solution to this issue."

That response led to a supplementary question from Mr. Arnott.

"To the same minister: For the last five years, I've been raising this issue in the Legislature to express support for two-hatter firefighters. The minister now has two choices to protect the public interest: He must either make the fire service grant a permanent, ongoing program to support small and rural communities with their firefighter training needs or he must support legislation to protect two-hatter firefighters from these union threats. Which option will the minister choose?"

Mr. Bartolucci replied: "Being sort of a master of introducing private members' bills, I would suggest that the member is simply doing his job in advocacy for his constituents and I encourage him to continue to do that. We're not deviating from our position with regard to this. We understand and we believe that firefighters, fire chiefs and municipalities must work together to resolve this issue. We are confident that co-operative dialogue amongst all of the partners will lead to a very, very positive solution."

The fire department and the union begun clashing over the two-hatter issue in late October when the seven volunteers resigned as a result of what the department called a flurry of letters from locals of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Union spokesman Fred Leblanc said recently that the union believes the firefighters need time between calls and working in two municipalities puts the general public at risk.

Also, there were issues of Workers Compensation that need to be addressed.

The two-hatter issue has also been brought to the attention of the Fire Marshal's Office, who said that, although they believe there is nothing to suggest a serious threat to public safety, the issue is best resolved through the collective bargaining process.