Damning audit leads province to end ties with Nova Scotia Firefighters School

CITYnews halifax / By Natasha O’Neill

A provincial audit of the Nova Scotia Firefighters School shows “appalling” results of a lack of safety, seriousness and planning, according to the government.

The comprehensive money-for-value audit details several failures of the school — which currently operates as a non-profit body — to keep students safe and to run the organization, giving firefighters a good foundation for their careers.

The audit included more than 680 firefighters from across the province, 52 fire service leaders, and eight members of the board of directors.

Some of the issues found include:

• Systemic and governance issues
• A breakdown in safety accountability
• Lack of stakeholder engagement
• Inadequate governance and oversight of the executive director
• Eroded public trust
• Lost confidence of firefighters

This damning report has prompted the government to end ties with the school.

“This is not the way we wanted this relationship to end, but we can’t sit by while problems of this magnitude are ignored by the firefighter’s school,” said Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr. “Our firefighters need and deserve a safe environment for their training. Skyler Blackie deserved that, and so does everyone who chooses this important calling.”

Related:

• Sister of dead firefighter calls for safety overhaul of N.S. firefighting school
• Family seeks reform as details of firefighter’s death at N.S. training school emerge
• ‘The world lost a truly beautiful soul and dedicated firefighter’: Community mourns death of young Truro firefighter

The report released Aug. 5, was in response to pushback after a student, Skyler Blackie, 28, was critically injured and later died in 2019 after a fire extinguisher he was using exploded during an exercise. The family of Blackie wants the province to integrate the training school into the college system, as occurs in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

In the coming weeks, the province said a steering committee will oversee an interim training plan and a longer term blueprint for firefighters, with the hope to have interim training available by fall.

CityNews Halifax has reached out to the Nova Scotia Firefighters School for a comment on the audit.

Blackie family responds

The young firefighter from Truro was described as an “outgoing” and “charismatic” man who left behind his wife, family, coworkers and fire family.

Since the incident, the Blackie family has been outspoken about the issues raised by the situation and pushed for more reports on the school. One of those took place in the months after Skyler Blackie was killed. It prompted his sister, Jessica Gillis, to launch a petition calling for reform.

A spokeswoman for the Labour Department said in the spring of 2024 that as “a result of our initial investigation, the Nova Scotia Firefighters School was charged under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.”

“The school was ordered to undertake an assessment by a third party, which resulted in 41 recommendations. Upon review of the report, 22 high-risk activities were noted by Occupational, Health and Safety officers, and the safety branch continues to work with the firefighters school to achieve compliance,” Sarah MacNeil said.

After the money-for-value audit on Tuesday the Blackie family made a statement saying how difficult the report is to read.

“When we lost Skyler in the line of duty, we made a promise to speak up; not just for him, but for every firefighter who deserves to come home safe. The findings of this audit are painful to read, but they reflect what we have known all along: the Nova Scotia Firefighters School is not safe,” the family said. “We are heartbroken that it took such a loss to bring this truth to light, but we are incredibly grateful to the Government of Nova Scotia for listening, for taking our concerns seriously, and for taking action. We are also thankful to the journalists who helped us share Skyler’s story and keep this crucial issue in the public eye. We remain committed to working alongside the Province to ensure strong legislation and safe, accountable training for every firefighter in Nova Scotia.”

Skyler Blackie poses in this undated handout photo. He died March 9, 2019 in hospital after a fire extinguisher he was using exploded during a training exercise at the school on the outskirts of Halifax. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO)