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Thank you everyone who participated in the 2021 Great Canadian Volunteer Firefighter Census! You can read the full report here.

In 2021, the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs in partnership with the National Advisory Council organizations successfully launched the first Great Canadian Volunteer firefighter Census. With the increasing relevance of data in the fire service, it was important to gather recent data to support our asks. 

To help us get a clear sense of the state of the volunteer fire sector, the census asked departments to report their numbers of firefighters, services offered, positions, what is considered a volunteer, demographic questions such as number of women firefighters, and their opinion on our proposed definition of a volunteer firefighter.  1148 Volunteer and Composite Fire Departments across Canada submitted their data into the Census. You can take a look at the full list of questions here.

Did you know we have a new definition of a volunteer firefighter? "A Volunteer Firefighter is someone who is available or on-call to perform fire services, emergency services, and non-emergency duties for a jurisdiction as needed. They may receive nominal remuneration (e.i. not a liveable wage considering hours and/or pay) for their time, and generally  have other occupations"

In light of the results, we've identified that there is a significant decrease of volunteer firefighters in our communities across the country. In response to this gap, it is important that we focus on recruitment and retention. To do so, the CAFC will reinvigorate its Answer the Call Program to help departments with their recruitment campaigns. 

Interested in becoming a Volunteer firefighter and answer the call? Click here to learn how to become a volunteer firefighter.

Did you know? There are 99, 919 total volunteer firefighters in Canada? This is a decrease from 126, 000 in 2016.

The census will be repeated in 2022, and will include collection matching data from Career departments to get a full image of the states of the Canadian Fire Service as a whole.

The results of the census were presented at Fire Rescue Canada this September 13. You can watch the recording here, view the slides. You can can also read100,000 Volunteer Firefighters Answer the Call in Canada, an article that we featured in Global Heroes.

Did you know? 11% of volunteer firefighters are women, and 32% are over the age of 50.