When Bruce Masales was identified with Stage 4 bladder most cancers, he says the information got here with out warning.
However as a longtime volunteer Halifax firefighter, Masales stated he at the least took consolation within the perception he would obtain monetary compensation.
Nevertheless, Masales stated he was instructed he does not qualify beneath the provincial Employees’ Compensation Board or different municipal insurance coverage protection, falling via a spot in each programs.
“I am sitting there — I used to be sort of shocked,” Masales stated lately.
The medical doctors found the most cancers throughout an unrelated surgical procedure he had final summer season, Masales stated.
He was identified in August 2024 with metastatic Stage 4 bladder most cancers — that means it had unfold to different organs. Masales was initially instructed he had a couple of yr to stay.
“I am going, ‘Effectively, wait a minute, what occurred to Stage 1, 2, 3, and I bypassed that?,’ … as a result of I simply had no signs,” he stated.
Masales spent a 21-year volunteer profession at Station 16 in his house neighborhood of Japanese Passage, retiring in 2017.
He stated he beloved the position. It was onerous work being a volunteer firefighter and dealing with a day job, but it surely was essential to “give again to the neighborhood.”
The employees’ compensation board has presumptively lined bladder most cancers for firefighters since 1993, recognizing the elevated most cancers danger associated to being a firefighter.
“I by no means smoked in my life, by no means did medication in my life, did not drink sufficient to say I drank,” Masales stated. “I do know folks that did all three to extra, and so they’re wholesome as a horse.”
Masales initially utilized to the employees’ compensation board as a result of he appeared to fit their criteria of serving at least 15 years to qualify for bladder-cancer protection. However his declare was rejected as a result of the Halifax Regional Municipality solely started paying into the board in January 2021 — after Masales had left.
“Discovered … the [Firefighters’ Compensation Act] that stated the province would deal with their firefighters,” Masales stated.
“Effectively, they will solely deal with them if the municipalities that they’re in, are paying the cash in.”
The province made it necessary for municipalities to supply most cancers protection for volunteer firefighters in 2020. Earlier than then, there was a patchwork throughout the province the place some areas used the employees’ compensation board and others solely non-public insurance coverage with various ranges of advantages.
Halifax used a personal insurance coverage coverage for volunteers between 1996 and 2021. Municipal spokesperson Laura White stated the insurance coverage had a most cancers good thing about $5,000, however solely utilized to volunteers identified whereas in “lively service.”
Masales stated he wonders what number of different Halifax volunteers could be caught on this hole in the event that they retired earlier than 2021 as a result of most cancers normally takes years to point out up.
When he joined in 1996, Masales stated there have been about 1,200 volunteers throughout the municipality working alongside profession firefighters, like at Station 16. That has dropped through the years to now about 560 active volunteers in Halifax, and 550 profession members.
“HRM Hearth is the most important hearth division in Nova Scotia, proper? They usually dropped the ball not defending their volunteers,” Masales stated.
“However I feel the province dropped the ball as a result of proper right here the place the federal government is predicated … any individual will need to have observed in some unspecified time in the future in time, ‘Jeez, we needs to be getting cash from these 1,200 volunteers. , the town ought to have been paying [WCB].”
Eight claims denied in recent times
Steve MacDonald, the spokesperson for the employees’ compensation board in Nova Scotia, stated the board obtained 60 claims for compensation associated to most cancers from volunteer firefighters throughout the province between 2020 and 2024.
The board did not present advantages in eight of these circumstances. MacDonald stated this might occur for numerous causes and “it’s fairly potential protection could have been in place, however the declare could not have proceeded for one more purpose.”
MacDonald did not say the place the claims got here from out of privateness issues.
Any compensation would have made an actual distinction, Masales stated, as a result of there’s issues he’d like to do “earlier than I am going” that he cannot afford — like visiting Gibsons, B.C., the place they filmed the long-lasting TV collection Beachcombers. He’d additionally like to enhance the home to make issues simpler on his spouse.
Masales went via 4 rounds of chemotherapy final fall. His medical doctors consider he has about two years left to stay with the help of immunotherapy therapy.
Though it was a reduction to get the information he has somewhat bit extra time than he initially thought, Masales stated he seems like “Wile E. Coyote and the ACME anvil sitting up ready to drop.”
Masales stated he went to his MLA Barbara Adams, who seemed into his case however stated there was nothing she may do.
Provincial spokesperson Greg Hanna stated the Nova Scotia authorities is at all times in search of methods to raised help firefighters and “the main target now could be on guaranteeing that every one lively firefighters are lined transferring ahead.”
The Halifax Skilled Hearth Fighters affiliation represents profession members and never volunteers, however president Brendan Meagher stated each firefighter coping with most cancers deserves help.
He stated it “does not really feel like justice” that any individual who has been uncovered to smoke and poisonous chemical substances via their service is not lined as a result of they had been identified after they left.
“, there’s an onus on the town to make it possible for individuals are taken care of,” Meagher stated.
Coun. Becky Kent, Masales’s native councillor, stated she could not converse to his particular case but it surely’s “at all times discouraging” when programs do not work for the individuals they’re designed to help.
When requested if she would discover a city-funded program to assist volunteer firefighters on this hole, Kent stated it is dependent upon the mannequin. However she stated she would take into account “any good concept.”
CBC requested to talk with Halifax CAO Cathie O’Toole about this hole for volunteers, however she declined the request.
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