Introduction

In the spring of 2000, five associations[1] representing various groups within the BC Fire Service (“the Associations”) conducted a joint survey of their members to evaluate the extent to which their members were satisfied with the programs and services offered by the Justice Institute’s Fire and Safety Division (“the FSD”). The results of the survey were compiled in a report entitled “Dealing with the Justice Institute of British Columbia Fire Safety Division” (“the report”). This is a response to that report.

The survey was circulated to 437 fire departments throughout British Columbia; 30 responses were received. The report provides no data (e.g. number of respondents who raised the same or similar issues, geographical breakdown, etc), only a summary of the various responses. It is therefore difficult for the reader to judge the extent to which this report represents the views of the members of the Associations and for the FSD to get useful directions from the report.

Nevertheless, the FSD takes the report seriously; this response will address all the issues raised and provide supporting data or contextual information where appropriate. In addition, the FSD will use the opportunity created by the report to inform Associations’ members about its various programs and services, to explain the context in which it must operate and to suggest ways to improve communication between the FSD and the Associations’ members.

Background

The Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC) was established in 1978 as a provincial post-secondary institute, with a mandate to provide training for public safety agencies. Although created under the Colleges and Institutes Act ^[2]^., it was unlike any other BC post-secondary institution; being based on a unique partnership arrangement between the ministry responsible for post-secondary education and the various ministries responsible for public safety agencies Health, Attorney General and Municipal Affairs. Its funding formula reflected the arrangement and provided for the Ministry of Advanced Education to fund the infrastructure, and for the client ministries to fund all program costs. It also meant that client ministries retained full control of the programs and services offered by the academies that they funded.

The Fire Academy was established in 1979 and operated under this arrangement for many years. This meant that the Office of the Fire Commissioner (OFC) funded the Academy and controlled, through an annual contract with the JIBC, the programs and services it offered to the fire service. Unfortunately, as a result of budget cuts, the OFC advised the JIBC in the fall of 1996 that it could not continue to support the academy after October 31, 1996 and the JIBC was faced with the possibility of having to cease all training to the Fire Service.

However, on November 1^st, 1996, funding was re-established to the JIBC in the form of a grant (of the same amount previously provided b the OFC) by the Ministry of Advanced Education, Training and Technology (MAETT). The grant was made with an understanding that the JIBC would continue to provide programs for the Fire Service. Neither the mandate nor the funding have significantly changed since then.

FIRE & SAFETY DIVISION COURSE/PROGRAM and SERVICE OFFERINGS

The FSD offers a number of training programs and services to fire service, marine, industrial/hazmat users and other emergency responders to achieve their goal of training for safer communities. Appendix A outlines a number of fire service programs along with the number of students who participated from April 1, 1999 to December 31, 2000.

The FSD provides a full range of services including; an inquiry service, training, program development, certification service, training delivery, evaluation, exam development, exam generation, maintains student records, provides training and safety audits, and funds an up-to-date library resource and lending service for the fire service.

The Fire Academy generates, marks, and posts [to student records] approximately 2000 exams per year in the BCFF program in about 100 departments. (See Appendix B for details).

At the end of 2000, there were 432 students registered in the Fire Service Leadership Diploma Program, which is only eighteen months old. (See Appendix C for details). In addition there have been a further 109 registrations received for the upcoming winter semester. This demonstrates continued demand and support for the program.

The Fire and Safety Training Center at the Maple Ridge Campus conducts over two hundred classes a year, both on-site and off-site for several thousand students in a variety of fire, marine, industrial, hazardous material and safety related subjects.

Accessibility

The ‘report’ states:

ACCESSIBLE

Programs should be easily accessible for all Departments throughout the province. In general terms, this means offering courses at times and locations that are convenient to the user. This should mean offering courses locally and on weekends. The programming, in addition to the current formats, should be in blocks in order to meet the needs of the customer. There is a strong perception that most programming is offered and focused in the Lower Mainland.

FSD Response:

Appendix D is an incomplete listing of course and program offerings that indicates the FSD, in some program areas, actually provides more programs outside the lower mainland than within it. Appendix A, B & C[3] reflect the number of communities that participate in the Fire Service Leadership program, officer training, Fire Service Instructor and Fire Inspector. The majority of these programs were delivered outside the lower mainland and where there is a market to justify the program delivery.

Appendix D[4] describes the numbers and locations of courses that have been delivered offsite.

The Fire Academy and the Fire and Safety Training Center are the two operational units that form the Fire and Safety Division. Between them, they offer training seven (7) days per week, plus evenings if necessary, to accommodate all components of the fire service.

The FSD is proud of its record of providing programs that are accessible throughout the province and is doing everything within reason to accommodate student access to face-to-face training. The information provided in the appendix to this response speaks for itself. The FSD will respond to requests for training or other services upon request where a need exists and where it is viable that the delivery takes place.

Attainable

The ‘report’ states:

ATTAINABLE

Programs should be offered in lengths and formats suitable for the needs of the customers.

In addition to the formats currently in place, this could mean a greater effort to reduce repetition of course content by the use of common modules or by recognition of course content for one program if taken for another program.

FSD Response:

Many of the circumstances that drive changes in programming are beyond the control of the FSD. As a professional training organization, the FSD needs to ensure that course content is up-to-date and is designed in accordance with the acceptable fire service standard. Professional standards are the foundation upon which FSD programs are built. Accreditation by an independent third party is also seen as critical to the success of FSD programs. Many of the programs delivered by the FSD are tailored to the specific geographic or operational need of the client.

All of the fire officer courses are offered in a distance education format while the more popular courses are also offered in classroom format. The longer-term plan is to deliver a number of Fire Service Diploma courses via the Internet within the next 2 years using Web CT.

The BC Fire Fighter Program is completely flexible. Departments do their own training, on their own schedules, at their own location, and either administer the exams themselves or register with FSD to write the exams and have evaluations conducted.

A concern was raised regarding recognition of course content from one program if a requirement was present in a similar course.

Extensive consultation was conducted on acceptance of equivalencies to accommodate the transfer of students from CO & CM to the Fire Service Leadership Diploma Program.

Where the transfer of credit involves learning from sources aside from the CO and CM, a program has been set up to evaluate the learning outcomes in order that they can be applied or favorably compared and accepted or refused on their own merit.

Extensive arrangements and consultation took place in moving students from the Volunteer Fire Fighter Certification Program to the BC Fire Fighter Program (BCFF).

These changes came as a result of development of the BC Fire Fighter Standard and contrary to popular opinion, were not driven by the FSD^[5].

The Fire Safety Advisory Council felt it was important to keep the BC Fire Fighter Standard lower in some respects than the NFPA Standard to accommodate BC needs. The result in some confusion to those departments that were knowledgeable of the requirements of NFPA. Students in the Career Fire fighter Pre-employment Program are trained to the NFPA and BCFF standards while fire fighters in the BCFF program are certified only to the BCFF Standard. The career departments that hire fire fighters require students who have completed a program that is IFSAC accredited. At this time IFSAC accreditation is based on compliance with NFPA Standards as opposed to regional or provincial standards.

With input from the Career Fire fighter Pre-employment Program Advisory Committee, several initiatives have been implemented to allow volunteer fire fighters easier access to the Career Fire Fighter Pre-employment program. A 7-week version of the training program has been developed that will recognize the volunteer’s previous training up to certification at Fire fighter 1 of the BCFF Standard. In addition, a proposal has been brought forward that promotes a credit system for JI programs that will assist persons without post secondary education to gain access to the pre-employment program. This proposal is subject to the acceptance of the hiring departments. Although in the conceptual stage at this point, the FSD is studying ways to accommodate fire departments in regional locations that have different qualifications than the GVRD departments.

The FSD is committed to ensuring that students can complete most programs within a five-year period. If students do not complete courses within the time limits of the accreditation cycle or within the standard cycle, the possibility exists that a program may change before completion.

On numerous occasions the FSD has demonstrated its willingness and ability to cooperate and respond to wishes of the fire service regardless of whether the request comes from individual fire departments or from one or more of the fire service associations.

Affordability

The ‘report’ states:

AFFORDABLE

The major problem in this regard is the need to access Fire and Safety Division instructors at Fire and Safety Division locations. This is seldom the most affordable method of delivery from the Department’s perspective.

A greater effort must be made to provide Fire and Safety Division and local instructors using regional facilities, so as to reduce costs. The Fire and Safety Division needs to expand the use of evaluators throughout the province. Although there is some recognition of the funding problems with the Division, there is a problem whereby the students and Departments can not afford the programs.

FSD Response:

The accessibility issue seems to be connected to the affordability issue. The FSD will deliver most courses where there are appropriate facilities and numbers of students to cover the costs and make course delivery viable.

The JIBC requires all of its academies and divisions to support the delivery of any course or program with a business plan to justify the undertaking. The business plan must demonstrate that a market exists and that the market is able to pay for the costs associated with the development and delivery of the program.

The BCFF Program, Fire Service Leadership Program and to some extent, hazardous material training are subsidized through the funding provided by the Ministry of Advanced Education Training Technology. The Ministry has given the JIBC no indication there will be any further subsidy for the development or delivery of fire programming.

New programs or changes to existing programs must be funded through monies generated by imposing fee-for-services or tuition fees.

To ensure efficiency, the FSD has demonstrated a commitment to assisting in many ways through the formation of partnerships and creative delivery methods in an effort to reduce the cost of program delivery. It is important to recognize the contribution that has been made to the FSD by industry, rail, Transport Canada, the construction industry to name a few. These contributions have made it viable to offer programs to the fire service at comparatively reasonable fees as the props have been donated or provided in support of other programs.

The JIBC and the FSD are often spoken of as a funding source. The message that must be sent to fire departments is that the JI is a training agency providing training services that are sponsored by a client, offset by Ministry funding associated with specified programs or on a cost-recovery basis. Providing training at a competitive rate is a challenge. If another province or state has more government funding for their programs than the JI then it is conceivable they can provide training at a lower rate.

Funding seems to be the root of many concerns with FSD programs. The Fire & Safety Division is doing what it can to deal with the affordability issue and to resolve this issue. The fire service associations, jointly with the FSD, need to develop a strategy that can be taken to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and the Ministry of Advanced Education, Training and Technology, that would make a strong argument in favor of additional funding from the provincial government for fire service programs.

Failing the success of this initiative, local governments need to fulfill their responsibility to fund an adequate level of training for their fire fighters in the interest of providing a safe and efficient operating environment for the fire fighters and a high degree of protection for their community.

Consistency

The ‘report’ states:

CONSISTANT

Over the years, the Fire and Safety Division has lost some credibility by changes in course criteria and offerings, without a smooth transition or consistent recognition of previous work. Often the changes are to the detriment of the student. Programs appear and disappear without apparent rhyme or reason. For a student working and planning over several years, it often seems that courses change and disappear before they can be completed.

FSD Response:

The FSD will agree that there have been problems during the transition between programs. To accept that these issues were solely the result of the transition between programs would be inaccurate. Using the BCFF program as the example, it was identified that many problems existed. Some were easily fixed while others required major improvements to computer and operating systems to resolve.

This in turn demanded many hours of staff time to correct and amalgamate student records, update department rosters to reflect current members to name but two spin-off issues that emerged. Many departments and students have subsequently expressed appreciation as these efforts have resulted in better organization of records at the fire department level.

It is our (biased) opinion that the FSD credibility has improved significantly in the eyes of the departments with the introduction of new up to date programs as well as systems to handle the business associated with the learning process.

The Fire & Safety Division would need an example of where a course disappeared before it could be completed. The Volunteer Fire Fighter Certification Program was given a two-year transition/phase-out plan that was to end on September 30, 1998. The FSD is still processing exams from students attempting to complete this program.

There may be some students who have put off completing the CO/CM courses now that these courses have been replaced with improved and updated programming; the students are worried that they can’t complete within the deadline. Students were given two-year's notice of the completion of the CO/CM courses.

This deadline is January 01, 2001. That aside, the FSD will make very conceivable effort to accommodate students who are focused on completing the program.

With ever-changing and enhanced standards being developed, changing course content and changing expectations of the fire service, members in the fire service will have to get used to dealing with the fact the only thing that will be consistent is change. Communicating these changes to all concerned will be an ever-present challenge.

Concerns and Concepts

The ‘report’ states:

The report identifies several items under the sub title of Concerns and Concepts. The items raised included, Delays (exams, tutors, registration), Affordability, Course Availability, Communications (Essentials 4, change in bridging requirements), General Communications, Staff Vacancies, Policies, Customer Input, Outdated Programming, Program Announcements, Recognition of Previous Education, Technology and Standards Perception.

FSD response:

Delays In Exams

The BC Fire Fighter Program provides a certification service that compliments the BC Fire Fighter Standard. This certification service involves the FSD examining fire fighters through written exams and practical evaluations. Departments can participate in this program through the pre-registered format or use of the fire department administered exam (DAX) format. The BCFF evaluators are trained by the Fire Academy to conduct evaluations. The Fire Academy also maintains a record of courses taken and completions. The Fire Academy does not provide training to the fire departments through the BC Fire Fighter Program. The training occurs within the fire departments by whomever the department chooses. The FSD is an IFSTA Distributor that markets IFSTA manuals, curriculum and instructor guides to the fire service to assist departments in conducting their own training.

Since 1996, the FSD has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve the BC Fire Fighter Program.

· Reduced the number of exams required from 23 to 10 by introducing a modular system.

· Allowed fire departments to conduct examinations on their own sites. This is known as the Department Administered model DAX.

· Established a performance standard of three weeks as a turn-around time for exam marking. There have been very few complaints about exam turn around time in the BC Fire Fighter Program for two years which would indicate the majority of our customers are generally satisfied with our performance on this issue.

· During 2000 the Fire Academy trained 43 evaluators in Vernon, Kamloops, Nanaimo and Maple Ridge to evaluate the Live Fire Module 8 of the BCFF Program.

· At the request of the Fire Safety Advisory Council Certification Subcommittee, the Fire & Safety Division designed and implemented a Basic Fire Fighter Program comprised of nine single subjects.

· When the Fire & Safety Division develops a new program, it must be done to the latest standard. As a result the examination system to support the Basic Fire Fighter program was designed and based on the Essentials 4 Curriculum. It was the Fire & Safety Division’s understanding that the representatives of the associations would communicate this information to their members. Comments in the report imply that this did not take place in all cases. This would suggest that a better way of communicating with people in the field about upcoming changes is required. The FSD would welcome suggestions from the Associations about how this might be more effective.

· The Fire & Safety Division has invested significant time and dollars into improving the BCFF program. The complaints concerning delays in marking exams have all but disappeared. If, as the report implies, there are still complaints, we would encourage the Associations to forward the details to us so that we may investigate them, as we are committed to respond to all concerns in a timely manner.

· In 1999 – 2000 the Fire & Safety Division provided certification services to 89 departments and generated and marked 1911 modular exams.

Commentary: In an effort to accommodate the Fire Safety Advisory Council and the Volunteer Fire Service, the Fire & Safety Division bypassed the business plan step in the implementation of the Basic Fire Fighting Certificate Program. If a business plan had been developed, the program would not have been approved. There is no market justification for this program. The FSD incurred approximately $15,000 in development costs associated with dissecting and revamping the modular exam banks and checklists into single subjects. To recover this outlay would require 1000 students to take an exam at the assigned cost of $15.00 per student. As of January 10^th, 2001, two departments have registered in this program. This comes at a time when the Volunteer Fire Fighter Association is lobbying the FSD to accommodate fire departments who wish to move from the single subject program to the BCFF modular program. This amounts to converting the entire program to single subjects.

The Basic Fire Fighting Certificate Program is an example where the FSD has absorbed the development costs to accommodate the small volunteer fire departments.

The FSD also developed and launched a new Fire Service Leadership Certificate/Diploma program. This program was developed in response to recommendations made by the Fire Officer Advisory Task Force and NFPA releasing a new Fire Officer Standard. The Advisory Task Force requested the program be IFSAC accredited. To meet this requirement, the course content needed to meet the new NFPA Fire Officer Standard. The impact of the introduction of the new Fire Officer Standard meant FSD had to not only develop and deliver the new Diploma program but continue to serve the Company/Command Officer students. This work had to be done with the same number of staff. Staff is cross-trained to assist with the new Fire Service Leadership Certificate/Diploma but was not cross-trained in the old program until late in the process. This resulted in lost information, confusion and delay. This is regrettable and the cross training done at this time should avoid a future occurrence.

A similar experience occurred with a tutor. The tutor in question, did not give notice and in fact it took two student complaints for the FSD to realize the tutor was not doing the work he had committed to do. This has now been resolved.

Tutors

Tutors are a key component in conducting distance education programs and also a primary component in keeping the cost at a minimum. The FSD has developed a back-up system by assigning full-time staff to fill in as required. But this only works if tutors indicate that they are in need of assistance or are unable to perform the duties.

The response to the Fire Service Leadership Certificate/Diploma Program has exceeded all expectations. The number of registrants has put additional pressure on support staff and tutors. To remedy this, the FSD has allocated additional staff to manage the additional work demands. In addition, a new tutor guide is in the final stages of development that will ensure that tutors are familiar with duties and expectancies. In addition to improved contact with tutors, the FSD also intends to hold BI-annual meetings with tutors to ensure currency with material and to monitor any concerns within the program areas.

The JIBC has just developed a JI Instructor Guide that is being issued to all tutors and instructors that contains statements of expectancies that support the ISO 9001^[6] certification that the JIBC has received.

Registration

We are aware that there used to be timeliness problems in registration for the CO/CM and the Fire Officer Program in the early stages. A number of change were implemented to address the issues. Based on feedback from staff5, we believe that we have successfully corrected the problem. However, if students continue to experience delays, we would invite them to contact us directly and we will do everything in our power to remedy the situation, or, in some cases, to at least explain why some delay was unavoidable.

Affordability

The ‘report’ states:

This is a concern that the FSD must deal with. As the programming prices continue to rise, the client base will become smaller reducing the revenue steam.

FSD response:

Every effort is made to offer courses at competitive prices. The price for a distance education course at affordable prices. We are funding to subsidize courses and services as much as possible, within the constraint of our budget, while at the same time trying to meet the needs of as many of our clients as we can. For example:

· Courses at the Open Learning Agency range from $263.00 - $329.00. A similar course in the new Fire Officer Program is $225.00 plus textbooks.

· The cost of developing and producing a set of exams has been calculated at approximately $30.00 per exam for the BC Fire fighter program. We are charging the volunteer service $5.00 per exam.

· The Fire Officer Classroom course costs an average of $125.00 per day, well within the range of what other academies charge their clients for similar training.

· The issue of affordability is one of perspective. From the perspective of the FSD, we are offering first-rate programs based on current standards at the lowest possible price that allows us to serve the broadest range of clients. The courses and programs are offered at prices that are less than other training institutions in Canada with comparable programming. From the perspective of some fire departments that believe training for the fire service should be free, the JI tuition fees seems high. Some reality needs to be brought to the discussion around this issue unless additional funding can be found to subsidize programs; we cannot offer these services any cheaper.

Where fire departments and their members understand that the JI-FSD must deliver training on a cost recovery basis in order to remain viable, the business relationship is very positive. This is proven by the number of departments participating in FSD programs, and the positive evaluations that are received from the participating students.

Course Availability

The ‘report’ states:

The FSD should offer classroom portions of distance education on a semester style approach. The number of programs would be based on enrollment.

FSD response:

As one example, the Fire Officer Program has been developed into a classroom model that parallels the distance education program. This is conducted on an as-required basis and is a means of fast-tracking completion of a program level.

The acceptance of the classroom model has not been stellar as the cost of instructors is significantly greater than the use of tutors and this cost is passed on to users of the classroom program.

The fire officer level workshops (F120, Fire Scene Management and F160, Strategic Operations and Unified Command), however, are conducted on an as-required/requested basis, as there is a high demand for the skills developed through participation at these workshops.

The FSD is considering offering specific blocks of the Fire Prevention Program in classroom format. This would be based on the client demand and geographic ability to support this endeavor.

We would be interested in the Association’s perspective on which programs not currently offered face-to-face need to be re-designed for classroom delivery, and what clients would be willing to pay in tuition to make such programs viable.

The ‘report’ states:

The FSD should consider further use of evaluators and adjunct instructors.

The FSD continuously trains evaluators throughout the province to participate in the certification process attached to the BC Fire Fighter Program. There are presently 245 evaluators on the roster^[7] with 43 evaluators trained to evaluate Live Fire^[8]^, Module 8. This training will continue to occur as long as the demand exists.

There is not a plan to train a large number of evaluators in Hazardous Material Operations level at this time. The FSD is satisfied that as this level requires specialized training and understanding, there is a need to maintain a higher level of control over this level of evaluation. All requests for evaluation at this level have been adequately satisfied using existing staff and industrial evaluators.

Communications

Essentials 4^th Edition:

The FSD became a distributor of IFSTA products[9] as a support mechanism for the fire service of British Columbia when budgets provided by the Office of the Fire Commissioner could no longer support the development and updating of training materials that were specific to British Columbia. The Fire Service is notified of any changes to availability of publications as quickly as practical following notification being received from IFSTA. The first notice of the publication of Essentials 4^th Edition was made to the fire service in the February 1998, FSD Newsletter.

It was indicated at that time that we would continue to sell Essentials 3 as long as it was available from the publisher. Unfortunately, we learned that there were no more 3^rd editions available from IFSTA as of the announcement of the 4^th edition. A further announcement of the availability of Essentials 4^th Edition was made in the August 1998 Newsletter.

The greater issue has been to accommodate the needs of departments who have chosen to retain Essentials 3 as their study document when exam banks reflect the requirements of Essentials 4. Exam banks have been amended to eliminate questions where the information has been found to be different between the two editions of the Essentials publication.

The greater challenge is the need to establish consistency at the fire department/local government level to ensure that all standards and subsequent training materials move to newer versions of curriculum material at the same time. NFPA and IFSTA have both indicated that there will be major changes to the NFPA 1001-2002 Edition of both the standard and the related IFSTA products that support local training. The fire service in British Columbia must be prepared to accept this change or be prepared to fall yet another edition of the international standard behind where it is now.

Change in Bridging Requirements:

The bridging requirements from the Company Officer and Command Officer Programs to the Fire Service Leadership Certificate/Diploma Program were established through discussion with the BC Professional Fire Fighters, the BC Fire Chiefs and the GVRD Fire Chiefs Associations. The results were published as a part of the information and registration package for the Fire Service Leadership Diploma/Certificate Program. The prior studies of each student are considered separately with every effort made to maintain consistency where the background and training are the same. The area that continues to cause ongoing frustration is the grand fathering that took place in 1987 and again during 2000. There has not been a revision to the original agreement. The bridging requirements were widely circulated and promoted through direct mailing as well as featured in articles in the FSD Newsletter beginning in August of 1998 with regular updates on development and availability of the program.

General Communications:

The ‘report’ states:

The FSD needs to provide proper and timely communications when it changes anything major in its programming.

FSD Response:

Considering the amount and types of publicity that has been devoted to the Fire Officer Program, Incident Safety Officer, improvement to the BCFF program and a number of other new programs and courses, the FSD would require additional information in order to prepare a response to this item. Suggestions from the Associations on how we might improve communication with their membership would also be very welcome.

The ‘report’ states:

The FSD needs to establish a performance standard for responding to written and oral communications.

FSD response:

The Fire & Safety Division is very interested in effective ways of improving the way documents and verbal communications are received and answered. The FSD is implementing procedures to control the flow of mail that arrives in order that it is recorded, distributed and responded to within appropriate timeframes. This process will also ensure the proper staff person has responded. Under the ISO 9001 process, a written complaint process has been implemented to ensure all concerns are adequately addressed.

The ‘report’ states:

The FSD needs to ensure that all staff are aware of programming and are responding to customers in the same manner.

FSD Response:

Aside from general inquiries, internal procedures require that questions be forwarded to the staff members assigned to the specific program or function. It is unrealistic to expect that all staff should operate at the same level of understanding on all aspects of FSD operations and course/program offerings.

Staff Vacancies

The ‘report’ states:

The FSD should cross train staff in order to provide a continuity of service.

FSD Response:

The FSD is constantly reviewing operational needs and within the ongoing planning process will ensure that staffing levels are sufficient to conduct and administer the training programs that are offered.