Actualizing Research

Dan Haden is a 26-year career firefighter with Toronto Fire Services—Canada’s largest fire service with more than 3,000 members and the fifth largest in North America. Currently seconded as an officer to the Recruitment and Community Outreach Section, Dan is leading the implementation of its three-year human rights, access, equity, and diversity action plan.

The action plan’s framework is based on FIRE 20/20’s Multicultural Health & Safety Research Report, which was funded by a 2005 DHS Fire Prevention & Safety Research Grant, and ‘The National Report Card on Women in Firefighting’ that was prepared for The International Association of Women in Fire & Emergency Services (iWomen).

Dan discovered FIRE 20/20’s research and iWomen’s and is making them integral to Toronto Fire Services’ human rights initiatives. FIRE 20/20 has in turn discovered an extraordinary leader.

The Path to Diversity: The Toronto Fire Services Experience
By Dan Haden

Toronto Fire Services (TFS) is the largest fire service in Canada and fifth largest in North America with more than 3,000 members proudly serving a community of nearly three million of the most diverse people in the world. As of 2006, 47% of the city's population was visible minorities, an increase of 10.6% since 2001, and 31.8% since 1996. The top five minority groups in our city are South Asian (12%); Chinese (11.4%); Black (8.4%); Filipino (4.1%); Latin American (2.6%).

Like many, if not most fire services in North America, TFS is committing considerable resources to appropriately reflecting the diversity of our city's communities. Yet, even as we continue to investigate and implement the most innovative industry strategies for increasing the representation of visible minorities, women and other diverse people within our ranks, we will assuredly be challenged to improve at a rate consistent with the growth of our city.

Recently, we responded to an increasingly aggressive diversity mandate by adding outreach programs to the broader emergency services industry both in Canada and the United States, and by fostering more expedient, more effective private-public partnerships - the 'three Ps'.

Our efforts began with a City Council mandate to prepare a three-year Access, Equity and Human Rights Plan for the fire division - a requirement for each division of the City of Toronto. Access, equity and human rights planning originally began in our city in 1999 with a recommendation of the Task Force on Community Access and Equity that the City's Auditor General oversee an audit on access, equity and human rights once in each term of Council (every four years). The first audit report was tabled in 2004, and this second report in October 2008. The latest report contained 29 recommendations, including in areas of human rights, civic engagement, and monitoring and measuring progress, and that "the City should consider including access and equity related performance indicators in the annual performance evaluation of management staff.

While completing the report, the Auditor General benchmarked the best practices of such private-sector organizations as IBM, HSBC Bank and the University of Toronto - each of which was awarded Canada's Best Diversity Employer Award in 2008 by Mediacorp Canada (the City of Toronto received the 2007 Diversity on Governance Award from the Maytree Foundation).

Each initiative in our Human Rights Plan is checked against measurable outcomes in each of the three years.

Fire Service Response

Our first step was to look at the latest and best in related fire service research on the topic to establish benchmarks that would help us set objectives.

Traditionally, the fire services industry has lagged somewhat behind other sectors in the pursuit of scientifically sound, statistically valid and directly relevant research on the state of our demographics and on the effect that multicultural capacity can have on both the delivery of our services, and our ability to recruit from multicultural communities without compromising our standards. Nevertheless, we were confident from the outset that we could maintain the highest standards in an environment of moral and legal defensibility.

We were impressed and relieved when we came across the work of Fire 2020, primarily in the Multicultural Health and Safety Project (MHSP), and the work of iWomen, primarily in the National Report Card on Women in the Fire Services ('Report Card').

The first thing we realized from the Fire 2020 research was the potentially adverse effect of insufficient multicultural capacity on the health and safety of firefighters. Fire 2020 confirmed scientifically what we knew intuitively but hadn't completely understood - if, for example, a Muslim woman considers not leaving, or worse, re-entering an involved structure as opposed to being inappropriately uncovered, there is significant potential for greater danger to firefighters who may then have to enter that structure to perform rescue services.

We immediately prepared a 30-minute presentation designed to bring this issue, by way of increasing multicultural capacity, firstly to each of our recruit classes, then to other members by way of our mandatory training programs delivered, in part, using a popular web-based platform.

We then incorporated more complete understandings of the Fire 2020 and Report Card results into the Divisional Human Rights Plan, and prepared summaries of the MHSP and Report Card in PowerPoint format for presentation to senior officers, and fire service and private-sector partners.

We analyzed existing census and other data pertaining to our communities so we could direct our efforts to maximize results. Once completed, and utilizing the MHSP and Report Card findings, The Human Rights Action Plan called for, among others, the following recruitment efforts;

• Equity analysis of the current recruitment and selection processes;
• Stronger relationships with certain existing city divisions;
• A meaningful Web 2.0 social media networking presence;
• Analysis of effects of the standardized provincial pre-service fire curriculum;
• Forming the Fire Chief's Council on Access, Equity and Diversity.

Provincially Standardized Curriculum

Ontario has a standardized pre-service fire education and training curriculum endorsed by the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs and the Office of the Fire Marshal. This program is generally offered through the community college system, of which there are about five in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

When we asked about the demographics of typical graduating classes, we discovered a gender and ethnic diversity rate of about 10% - far below that which would allow us to meet our diversity mandates if we were to insist on program certification as a hiring pre-requisite. On further analysis for possible reasons for the low diversity rate, we discovered a number of factors which might act as equity barriers. Among others, these included the cost of the program, program disbursement, and varying entrance requirements.

While the program may be provincially funded to some extent (depending, among others, on college choices, delivery mode and provincial funding qualifications), there are still considerable costs associated with content delivery, especially in the need for students to either purchase or rent personal protective equipment (PPE); and in the need for colleges to have agreements with local fire services for the rental of facilities, etc., in order to be able to meet the very strictly controlled program and learning outcomes. While there is variance, this can mean tuition costs in excess of $11,000 for three semesters, compared with regular tuition fees of about $6,000.

If we wanted to professionalize the fire service by eventually considering pre-service education certification a hiring pre-requisite, we had to open dialogue with our community college partners.

Initially, we presented the Fire 2020 MHSP and iWomen Report Card summaries
along with the City's demographic data and our mandate to one college's Program Advisory Committee (PAC). We invited each local college to TFS headquarters, and we attended at several other colleges to explain our mandate and purposes. Most recently, we invited the Deans responsible for the pre-service program to hear our experiences and form a regular email discussion group; we are using that discussion to propose and dialogue on solutions.

One such proposal includes offering the TFS Career Preparation Course (a short program, usually offered at the Toronto Fire Academy that allows learners to be exposed to some firefighting personnel, equipment and scenarios) at each local community college and seeking funding from various social agencies. So far, response has been good.

While in discussion with the community colleges, we asked about the demographics in other emergency services classrooms and learned that generally, especially Police Foundations, they were having much better diversity experiences. We asked to speak directly with the graduating Police Foundations students, in their classrooms (as opposed to trying to get them to attend job and career fairs), in seven different colleges. Students in other emergency services programs have already demonstrated an aptitude consistent with fire service requirements. For various reasons, we were able to arrange to speak with two, and in one of those classrooms more than 80% were visible minorities.

Social Media Networking

If you are over 40, possibly even over 30 years-of-age, then you, like me, probably use 'old school' communication. The cell phone is not modern technology as much as the way you use it, and career information sessions are no longer your exclusive means of disseminating recruitment information.

Our research revealed an incredible audience in the Facebook statistics. Canada has the most Facebook users outside the U.S. at more than 10.6 million. That's about 32% of our population, including those who are unable to use Facebook (too young, no Internet, etc.). We learned that 2.7 million of those users are between 13 and 19 years-of-age; 3.3 million are between 19 and 25 years; and 3.2 million are between 25 and 35 years. There are 1.4 million Canadian male Facebook users between 19 and 35 years, and 1.3 million between 25 and 35 years. Canadian females constitute 5.8 million of the total users.

Provincially, Ontario ranks fifth in usage at 36% of total Facebook penetration (the Yukon leads with more than 67%). In the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), there are about 500,339 users, almost 10% of the total population, and this rises if we include surrounding areas such as Barrie, ON, (about 21.79%), and Sudbury, ON (about 21.5%).

We had noticed the average age of our recruit classes rising over the past few years. Facebook presented us with an opportunity to communicate with an outstanding number of the 18-35 years-of-age demographic as they constantly increased their already extensive use of social media networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Our Facebook project began with compiling research for the preparation of a business case to seek permission from the City's Web Governance Committee to develop and launch a Toronto Fire Services Facebook page. While at first this may appear simple or unimpressive, local governments are often reticent to endorse social media networking usage in light of the potential for abuse and the associated risks and liabilities.

Notwithstanding, we were successful, and TFS became the first city division to be granted permission - albeit conditional upon, among others, the requirement to produce comprehensive statistics and experiences within weekly reports. Those reports, however, have been invaluable in the learning curve, and in the development of formal usage policies for TFS and the City.

We launched the Toronto Fire Services Facebook page in early April 2009 and by mid-May 2009 had surpassed an impressive 500 fans.

Facebook allows us a number of meaningful opportunities, including the abilities to communicate with both a younger and more diverse demographic (about 30% of our fans are female, considerably higher than the fire services average for female member representation at about 3.7% as identified by the Report Card); to upload information more quickly; to easily upload and maintain varying information formats (videos, slide presentations, event information, pictures, etc.); and to communicate with our public more directly - we are now able to respond to questions directly submitted to our Discussion Board. We are also investigating pre-scheduled online appearances whereby users could communicate with certain senior officers in real-time.

As we continue to market TFS Facebook through ongoing community Career Information Sessions, our official city website, and more, we expect not only to increase the size of our audience, but to be able to better reach our more diverse citizens. As our experience grows, it's becoming increasingly certain that Facebook provides unique opportunities for progressive, enhanced civic engagement.

Stronger Internal Relationships

• Most have higher than average at-risk populations, including visible minorities;
• 11 of 13 had family incomes below the city average;
• Unemployment rates for population ages 15 years and over were higher than average in 12 of the 13 PAs;
• All showed higher than average rates of visible minorities;
• Many PAs had a higher than average proportion of residents with post-secondary education from outside Canada. For us, this meant that people who could likely satisfy entrance requirements for the pre-service fire curriculum at nearby community colleges, and for Toronto Fire Services membership, were somehow either being overlooked, or experiencing systemic barriers. According to a background document on social risk factors prepared by the city, "When this information is compared against the higher rates of unemployment and low income rates, it is reasonable to infer that many of these Torontonians are having difficulties finding employment and/or matching their skills and training to employment;"
• Of the 13 PAs, 10 are fairly homogenous in that visible minorities represent near or greater than 66% of the total population;
  
• Almost every PA has a higher than average proportion of recent immigrants.

We now had a direction for most effective use of new programs.

One of the things we noticed was the prevalence of community housing in the PAs. We then quickly realized that since community housing was a municipal responsibility, administration of this housing was the responsibility of our city colleagues at Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). We began  focusing efforts on building stronger relationships with TCHC.

This resulted, initially, in TCHC disseminating and posting recruiting materials in their facilities (the pilot project took place in one of the smaller districts in one PA to assure we could manage the results). The initial exposure was to more than 9,000 TCHC units.

We are now in discussion with TCHC about expanding that project, firstly to other districts, then, hopefully, eventually city-wide.

However, one of the more significant benefits of our stronger relationship with TCHC was the ability to utilize their expansive knowledge and resources at the community level.

Each PA has a Neighborhood Action Partnership (NAP) basically designed to bring together members of the community with social organizations, public and private. We asked for, and received, an invitation to participate on one of these NAPs, for which we quickly joined the Safety Sub-committee – a natural fit for our services. Among many others, this has given us the added opportunity to dialogue with PA community members, and interested community organizations, on a level other than responding to their emergencies, inspecting their buildings, or presenting safety sessions at their elementary schools (all of which are still valuable opportunities as identified by the MHSP). Through these efforts, we have also recently been able to sign a partnership agreement with The Storefront (www.thestorefront.org), a private-sector community organization that "act(s) as a bridge between people, services and communities."

The Fire Chief's Council

Early in our review of the MHSP research, we were impressed with how Fire 2020 approached the multicultural communities, and then with how those communities participated in the findings. Benchmarking the Fire 2020 and multicultural communities as a best practice, it seemed to us that all we had to do to learn more about the needs of our local multicultural communities (and how to more effectively communicate with them), was to open our doors, invite them in, sit at the same table and be sincere about our interest in listening. That led to the Fire Chief's Council on Access, Equity and Diversity being inserted into our Human Rights Plan.

The overall objective of the Council will be to increase the multicultural capacity of Toronto Fire Services. We borrowed the definition of multicultural capacity from Fire 2020 as:

"[T]he degree of proficiency and ease with which Fire/EMS personnel respectfully deliver emergency and non-emergency services to multicultural community members, as well as their willingness to learn about different community cultures. This includes knowledge of cultural practices, values, rituals, differences in expressing emotions, community priorities, etc."

The short-term objective will be to identify and recommend strategies for consideration by Toronto Fire Services in its efforts to better become and remain culturally reflective of the communities it serves.

While the Council will have the power to propose final formats, schedules, etc. as it meets; the initial methodology will progress through;

• Regular and frequent meetings established and controlled by the Fire Chief in consultation with the Council;
• Open but sensitive discussion of relevant issues, ideas, etc.;
  
• Sharing of important and relevant information, including through guest speakers, presentations, appropriate distribution of documents, etc.;
• Recommendations and actions that may or may not be accepted by a majority of the Council;
• The keeping of minutes, with or without items for action;
• Collaboration with other groups having similar or contributory purpose(s).

Initial work has included development and approval of a suitable business case; identification of appropriate representation; invitations; explanatory and other initiating documents; an initial agenda; and the logistics generally associated with arranging a first meeting of about 20 people (we decided that initial Council size should be manageable enough to both encourage effective representation and assure growth).

We are anticipating an inaugural meeting of The Council about the end of July 2009.

Equity Analysis

The equity analysis was introduced as an overriding principle of future processes, including the development and implementation of SOPs, SOGs, training notes, advisories, memorandums, etc.

The process begins with viewing through an "equity lens" so that everything we do is considered for its effect on diversity, and diversity is considered for its effect on everything we do. We hope to put each component of our current recruitment and selection process under an equity lens scrutiny. As a general guide only, we have also borrowed the "four-fifths rule" from the U.S. EEOC Uniform Guidelines for helping us understand which components require our most immediate attention.

A Broader Community Issue

Interestingly, and rather unexpectedly, we were somewhat surprised as we spoke with nearby private- and public-sector partners to learn that they didn't sense a similar urgency to diversity objectives. This was primarily expressed as a feeling that their communities weren't nearly as diverse; that they already reflected their communities; or that their multicultural communities had not rallied in sufficient numbers to give momentum to the problem - a 'wait and see' approach.

We researched the latest Statistics Canada census data for one area and, among others, calculated the rate of growth for the previous 10 years and projected that rate through 2010, the first year we felt we would be able to see any results from our efforts. In one community, very quickly approaching 100,000 people (about 16% of the total overall population of more than 500,000 in that area); visible minorities will represent 41% of the total population - very close to the City of Toronto at about 48%. We separated the urban from the rural areas and estimated that in the five largest urban areas representing 91% of total population, 23% are visible minorities. In the three largest urban areas representing 52% of total population, we estimated that 33% are visible minorities.

According to a representative partner for the nearby community on the opposite geographical side, it is the fourth choice for settlement by new immigrants to Canada after Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

According to a City of Toronto Backgrounder also analyzing the 2006 census data on ethnic origin and visible minorities;

• Urban areas are likely to experience human rights issues more prominently. In Canada, 96% of the total visible minority population live in a metropolitan area compared with just 68% of the total population;
  
• The Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) has surpassed the Vancouver CMA with the highest proportion of visible minority population;
  
• Within the GTA, Toronto has 52.4% of visible minority persons, but Toronto's share has fallen since 1996 as immigrants settle in areas outside of the city;
  
• Regional municipalities in the rest of the GTA have seen sharp growth in visible minority population, increasing 53.2% from 2001 to 2006 and a stunning 121.7% over the last decade;

Human rights in the fire service is not a Toronto-centric issue, it is quickly becoming regional-centric.

The status quo also has to be viewed in light of recent human rights legislative trends. The Ontario Human Rights Code was amended as of June 30, 2008 to enhance the complaint process, including that complaints can now be expedited by directly filing with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (as opposed to the Commission first); employees can now file both union/association grievances and human rights complaints on the same issue; the $10,000 cap on mental anguish has been removed; the limitation period for filing has been extended from six months to one year; the Human Rights Commission's role has been enhanced; and the Human Rights Legal Support Centre has been created.

Just as we preach for reducing the incidence of fire loss in our communities, prevention is less costly. In 2007, 19 complaints were filed at the Ontario Human Rights Commission against the City, and eight were filed as of August 2008. Based on staff assessments, the average cost to the city per complaint resolution was $65,000 with an average settlement time of about four to five years.

We should expect costs associated with human rights complaints and resolutions to rise sharply under these conditions. Furthermore, while cases settled at the Tribunal level may not act as precedents, they are persuasive to future cases, including incidents in other fire departments. Ignoring this potential represents poor risk management.

Conclusion

• Multicultural communities want to participate in their fire services;
• Multicultural communities and fire services may have different views on the extent of fire service multicultural capacity;
• Negative experiences, including through inspections, 911 communications, etc., can adversely affect public trust of fire services;
• Insufficient trust and multicultural capacity can adversely affect firefighter safety;
• The effectiveness of our fire prevention and education initiatives vary across multicultural communities;
• In the City of Toronto, our multicultural communities will soon be the majority owners of our fire service;
• Women may not want to participate in firefighting at the rate they are reflected in our general workforces, but at 3.7% representation in the fire service, 47% in the general labor force, and 17% in similar occupations (our first benchmark), we are still a long way from women being fairly represented in our fire stations;
• At our current rate of change, women will wait about 72 years before they are fairly represented;
• We don't have to lower standards for female firefighters;
• Women can make the decision to become firefighters as young as 11 years-of-age;
• Most women firefighters hear about firefighting through a friend or relative who is/was a firefighter;
• Some women decide not to become (or remain) firefighters because of some of the incidents they hear about (or experience) in our fire stations;
• We don't market to women as effectively as we market to men;
• Some of these women are our daughters.

What we know from the social and demographic trends is that we (as a city, a region, a census area, a province, a country) are a changing society in which equality is being demanded more than sought. Our social processes are being amended to assure that the ability to make those demands is not hampered by systemic or other barriers. And the cost of waiting to see exceeds the cost of preventing.

If our experiences are correct, we can suggest some basic premises for responding;

• Know the social and demographic data for your area;
• Know the internal and external human rights protocols and trends;
• Know the related industry data;
• Know the data for your department;
• Interpret and summarize the data in meaningful ways;
• Establish baselines;
• Establish short- and long-term objectives;
• Establish effective private- and public- sector relationships;
• Share information - including data, interpretations, objectives;
• Incorporate constructive feedback

We only have to decide whether we are going to retain control over our processes, or hand them over to someone else, including human rights agencies, some of which have already proven a profound inability to appreciate and understand the honour, tradition and needs of our service.

Einstein once said, and I paraphrase, that it seems as though we have lost the passion for justice and dignity and no longer treasure what better generations have won at great sacrifice.

We should retain the power to control the direction of our own changes for the same reason we honor the tradition that we inherited from better generations.

It's simply the right thing to do.