Nova Scotia has cut ties with the Nova Scotia Firefighters School following a value-for-money audit that found serious safety problems and governance failures.
The province released the audit results Monday, revealing what Emergency Management Minister Kim Masland called “appalling” conditions at the training facility.
“We are ending our relationship with the school and will set up an interim training plan for firefighters right away,” Masland said. “Our firefighters respond when other people’s lives are on the line. They need and deserve, at minimum, a safe place to train.”
The audit was ordered in June following the 2019 death of firefighter Skyler Blackie during a training exercise. The province called his death preventable.
Major safety and governance problems found
The audit identified six key problems at the school:
- Systemic and governance issues
- A breakdown in safety accountability
- Lack of stakeholder engagement
- Inadequate oversight of the executive director
- Eroded public trust
- Lost confidence among firefighters
Auditors also found the school failed to maintain a culture of safety, had serious unaddressed safety problems, lacked strategic planning and had declining infrastructure.
The audit involved more than 680 firefighters from across the province, 52 fire service leaders and eight board members from the firefighters school.
Interim training plan coming
A steering committee will be formed in the coming weeks to oversee temporary training while the province develops a long-term solution. The goal is to have interim training available by fall.
The province is also conducting a separate review of fire services governance, led by the Fire Service Association of Nova Scotia. That review covers governance, operations, communications and funding.
“When we lost Skyler in the line of duty, we made a promise to speak up; not just for him, but for every firefighter who deserves to come home safe,” the Blackie family said. “The findings of this audit are painful to read, but they reflect what we have known all along: the Nova Scotia Firefighters School is not safe.”
Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr said the province has a duty to prevent similar tragedies.
“Skyler Blackie’s death was both tragic and preventable. We owe our firefighters better than that, and we have a duty to ensure this doesn’t happen to another firefighter,” Lohr said.
The school’s board structure and governance had not changed substantially in more than 20 years. Nova Scotia has more than 6,000 firefighters across 276 fire departments.
The audit was conducted by 21FSP Advisory Inc. and cost $300,000.
