|
Press Releases
These
are the press releases we've issued over the last
year. You may want to search for
topics by keyword.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FIREFIGHTERS’ INCREASED
CANCER RISK RECOGNIZED
October 31 , 2005
VICTORIA – Labour Minister Mike DeJong has introduced Bill 11 into the legislature. Bill 11 will provide Fire Fighters with coverage for certain Cancers as occupational illnesses. These are:
- Primary
site brain cancer
- Primary
site bladder cancer
- Primary
site kidney cancer
- Primary
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
- Primary
site ureter cancer
- Primary
site colo-rectal cancer
- Primary
leukemia.
The Union of B.C. Municipalities, along with a number
of municipalities including Vancouver, Surrey, Richmond,
Langley, Nanaimo, Prince Rupert and Kelowna have expressed
their support for a cancer presumption for firefighters.
Similar presumptions have been enacted for firefighters
in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.
The minister has written to the WCB to notify the
board of the coming legislation, which he expects will
be made effective April 11, 2005.
Recent Media Coverage of
Surrey Firefighters Association IAFF Local 1271
Want
to Know What We Are Doing?
Surrey
Fire Fighters Charitable Foundation is embarking
on our biggest project ever. Bigger
than our capital commitment of “One
Million Dollars” to Surrey Memorial Hospital’s
new Children’s Health Centre, bigger than
our contribution of “Two
Million Dollars to the BC Burn Ward at Vancouver
General over the past ten years. Our
project is a “Three Million Dollar Endowment Fund”. Our
short-term objective is “Three Million Dollars” but
we anticipate reaching a “Ten Million Dollar” total
in the foreseeable future.
The
endowment fund is intended to support our family,
youth and children’s
programs in Surrey. To carry on the community
work that fire fighters are renown for. Charities
such as Muscular
Dystrophy and the Burn Ward will be insured
of our traditional support as well as our $250,000 capital support of the new Surrey
YMCA and the $125,000
to the Centre for Child Development
for the operating of a casting and splinting room.
Surrey
is one of the first communities to have junior wheelchair basketball team and
an early
school breakfast program because of our efforts. The YMCA programs; and food bank, and homeless shelters all benefit from our
effort. We provide young burn
survivors with an opportunity to attend summer
camps with their peers. Street youth
programs such as provided by the Servants
Anonymous Society, and Surrey Family Services that
provide youth with the necessary support to leave
the abusive environment of the streets rely on
support from Surrey’s fire fighters. We
make a difference to young cancer
patients with summer camps and other support
programs.
Establishing
an endowment fund will allow us to continue
with our focus on community support for Surrey,
in Surrey, by Surrey. The
fund will provide the necessary resources to
allow us to continue to expand our children,
family and youth programs. We
will be able to concentrate on the programs
and not where the resources will come from. |
