3rd Session, 58th General Assembly
Nova Scotia
52 Elizabeth II, 2003
The Honourable Ronald S. Russell
Minister of Environment and Labour
First Reading: March 28, 2003 (LINK TO BILL AS INTRODUCED)
Second Reading: May 9, 2003
Third Reading: May 22, 2003 (WITH COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS)
Royal Assent: May 22, 2003
Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:
1 This Act may be cited as the Firefighters' Compensation Act.
2 Chapter 10 of the Acts of 1994-95, the Workers' Compensation Act, is amended by adding immediately after Section 35 the following Section:
35A (1) In this Section, "firefighter" means an employee, including officers and technicians, employed by a municipality and assigned exclusively to fire protection and fire prevention duties notwithstanding that those duties may include the performance of ambulance or rescue services, and includes a member of a volunteer fire department who performs those duties.
(2) Where a worker who is or has been a firefighter suffers an accident that is a cancer or other disease that is prescribed by the Governor in Council by regulation, the accident is presumed to be an occupational disease, the dominant cause of which is the employment as a firefighter, unless the contrary is proven.
(3) The presumption in subsection (2) applies only to a worker who has been a member of a fire protection service of a municipality or a volunteer fire department for a minimum period prescribed by the Governor in Council by regulation and who has been regularly exposed to the hazards of a fire scene, other than a forest-fire scene, throughout that period.
(4) The presumption in subsection (2) applies to accidents that happen on or after January 1, 1993.
(5) The Governor in Council may make regulations
(a) prescribing diseases for the purpose of subsection (2);
(b) prescribing periods of employment or volunteer work for the purpose of subsection (3),
and may prescribe different periods for different diseases prescribed for the purpose of subsection (2).
(6) The exercise by the Governor in Council of the authority contained in subsection (5) is regulations within the meaning of the Regulations Act.
(7) Subsection 83(2) does not apply with respect to a firefighter who learned before this Section came into force that the firefighter suffered from a disease prescribed pursuant to this Section.
(8) For greater certainty, compensation payable for the period before this Section came into force shall be calculated in accordance with this Part and not in accordance with the former Act.
3 This Act comes into force on such day as the Governor in Council orders and declares by proclamation.