Masters of Ceremonies: Chief Ken McMullen and Chief Daniel Perron

• Countdown to the beginning of the conference, Annual General Meeting
• Oh Canada - Moment of Silence for the Fallen
• Land Acknowledgements and Greetings, Board and NAC
• Annual General Meeting*

Georgette Reed, Canadian Olympian & Edmonton Fire Service Health Coordinator

Georgette Reed

During her athletic career, Georgette was a 17 time national athletics champion in the throwing events and represented Canada in the Olympic Games, World Athletics Championships, World Bobsleigh Championships, Pan American Games, Commonwealth Games and other international events.

With 46 years of experience in competitive sport, fitness and health; Georgette now puts all of the knowledge and expertise to good use as the Health and Wellness Coordinator for Edmonton Fire Rescue Services. She also serves as a Mental Health First Aid and Psychological First Aid instructor for the City of Edmonton and a DND R2MR (first responder) Master Trainer. During her keynote, Georgette will engage you with her thoughts on the concept of "Balance vs Flow" and how recovery is important to becoming a resilient leader.

Truth and Reconciliation in the Fire Service

Remarks by the Honourable Murray Sinclair, former Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, judge, lecturer, lawyer, professor of law

Chairs: Chief Keri Martens and Chief Arnold Lazare

Co-hosted by CAFC and AFAC/NIFSC

Anna Everett, Former Deputy Fire Chief, Brantford Fire Department

Anna Everett

Nearly 20 years of emergency services experience as Deputy Fire Chief, Training Officer, Lieutenant, volunteer firefighter, Advanced care paramedic, coach and mentor.

Jeremy Parkin, Fire Chief, Rama Fire Rescue Services

Jeremy Parkin

Jeremy Parkin joins the National Indigenous Fire Safety Council (NIFSC) project as the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Liaison Officer. Jeremy is a member of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and he comes to the project with more than 20 years of experience in First Nations fire services and a strong background in leadership developed through fire department operations and management. Jeremy has worked with leadership and fire chiefs’ organizations at both the provincial and federal levels. His role with the TAC is to facilitate as the group coordinates program development and delivery as well as address emerging regional and national technical issues.

Release of Great Canadian Volunteer Firefighter Census Results

Chief Vince MacKenzie, Answer the Call Committee

Vince Mackenzie

Chief Vince MacKenzie is Fire chief (full-time) of composite/volunteer fire department in Grand Falls-Windsor NL. He is a long serving board and National Advisory Council member of CAFC, and a past president of NL Association of Fire Services. He is a lifelong firefighter, presently in his 37th year of firefighting. His passion has been in advocacy for the successful advancement of the fire service since early in his career.

 

Speakers: Anabel Therrien and Cynthia Nwosu

Awards Ceremony

• CAFC Awards ceremony presided by Chief John McKearney, CAFC President
• Fire Chief of the Year, Researcher of the Year, ED&I Awards, ECFO Awards.
• Swearing in of new board of directors

Mental health support for firefighters during COVID-19 and beyond: A scoping review of best practices

Kathryn Sinden, Assistant Professor, Lakehead University

Kathryn Sinden

Dr. Kathryn E. Sinden RKin, PhD is an Associate Professor (School of Kinesiology) and Adjunct Professor (Department of Health Sciences) at Lakehead University; she is an Associate Scientist of EPID@Work Research Institute (Lakehead University) and an Affiliate Scientist with the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (Laurentian University). She has clinical and research expertise in ergonomics and disability management. Dr. Sinden uses principles of integrated knowledge translation to conduct her research which ensures outcomes are relevant to the partners who enable her work. Her research conducted in partnership with Thunder Bay Fire Rescue was recently recognized by Lakehead University with a Community Engaged Research Award.

Overcoming Compassion Fatigue & Avoiding Burnout During Covid Times

Larry Iverson, Psychologist, Trainer, Author and Coach, The Institute of Advanced Development

Larry Iverson

Dr. Larry Iverson is a Psychologist, Trainer, Author and Leadership Coach. He has personally coached and trained over 1,000,000 people, including professional athletes, corporations, online businesses, fire services, IMT's, local to national government agencies and universities. Larry provided Mental Toughness Training for 147 Olympic level athletes. He is the developer of, and trains, the L-480 Strategic Incident Management Team Leadership program for NAFRI, IAFC, NWCG & FEMA. Since 2008 Dr. Iverson has taught over 10,000 military, fire, public safety and all hazard team members. He created two trauma techniques now being widely used for work with PTSD. He produced and hosted a television program for PBS Television, titled “The Strategies for Success”.

The Economic and Socio-Economic Impact of Fire Prevention

Dave Waterhouse, Acting Division Chief, Service de securite incendie de Montreal

Dave Waterhouse

Mr. Dave Waterhouse is currently acting Division Chief at the Strategic Planning and Informational Resources Division at the Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal. He is the co-author of numerous studies on the economic and social benefit of Fire Department’s operational activities and Fire Prevention programs. His research also led him to develop an analytical model for the economic impact of Fire Department’s interventions on highways. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from HEC Montréal Business School and an MBA from Sherbrooke University Business School.

Quality as a Business Strategy: A new leadership approach for fire services

Scott Ramey, Division Chief, Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency

Scott Ramey

Scott Ramey is Division Chief of Medical Programs, Research, and Quality Improvement with Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency Service. Formerly a Critical Care Flight Paramedic with British Columbia Emergency Health Services and Ontario’s ORNGE Medical Transport; as well as Deputy Chief of Professional Standards and Quality with land Paramedic Services. Scott holds a BHSc in Paramedicine. He is a Master of Science student with Queens University department of graduate studies in Quality & Process Improvement, Human Factors, Risk & Safety.

Fit to Thrive: An Innovative Charge to Change Fire Fighters’ Health Behaviours

David Frost, Professor, UofT/IAFF

David Frost

Dave has collected and analyzed performance and injury data from more the 5000 firefighters across North America, authored several journal articles and book chapters on firefighters fitness, exercise and injury prevention, and served as an advisor to 50+ fire departments. The content and strategies discussed will be based on cutting-edge research findings and the insight Dave has acquired through first-hand experience in helping thousands of firefighters meet the physical demands of their lives. Dave is a professor at the University of Toronto and a technical advisor to the IAFF and the IAFC.

Interoperability for Incident Command: How to bring Police, Fire, EMS
and Dispatch together when lives are on the line

Scott Cowan, Assistant Deputy Chief

Scott Cowan

Scott has over 23 years of experience in fire, EMS, and emergency management. He has spent time as a frontline firefighter, advanced care paramedic, youth cadet program coordinator, emergency management officer, training coordinator, and company officer as Captain of a technical rescue team. He has a Masters Degree in Leadership and is a student of human factors, resilience, motivation, and performance. He is currently an Assistant Deputy Chief with the Calgary Fire Department and a Task Force Leader with Canada Task Force 2, a USAR and all-hazards national disaster response team based in Calgary.

‘The Wolf Was Not Sleeping' Emotional Wellbeing Initiative for First Responders

Kris Kennett, Station Officer, Fire and Emergency NZ, Feel Brave

Kris Kennett

Kris Kennett is a New Zealand based station officer, career and volunteer Firefighter for Fire and Emergency NZ. He sits on the national board for the NZ Firefighters Welfare Society. His passion for helping people has led him to study psychology with the long term vision of helping to advance the global mental health agenda for first responders.

Avril Mcdonald, Author, Feel Brave

Avril Mcdonald

Avril McDonald is the best-selling award-winning author of the Feel Brave series of books which are little stories about big feelings for children (currently translated into seven different languages). Her books are endorsed by clinical psychologists who cite them as being perfectly pitched for children and based on sound psychological research.

Community Risk

Shayne Mintz, Regional Director, NFPA

Shayne Mintz

Shayne Mintz is the Canadian Regional Director for the National Fire Protection Association and has over 4 decades experience in fire and life safety. Shayne has served as fire chief for the City of Burlington, ON and has held the position of assistant deputy fire marshal in charge of Fire Protection Services for the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal. Mr. Mintz has a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Public Administration degree and is also a member of the Institute of Fire Engineers (MIFireE). He also holds Chief Fire Officer designation from Dalhousie University and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.

CASA BeGrainSafe Program

Robert Gobeil, Agricultural Health and Safety Specialist

Robert Gobeil

Robert Gobeil is the Agricultural Health and Safety Specialist for the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA), a non-profit organization with the vision of “Safe and sustainable agriculture where healthy Canadian farm communities thrive”. Rob obtained his Occupational Health and Safety Certificate with Honours from Red River College in 2007. Rob currently manages the BeGrainSafe program, course development and other projects for CASA. Rob leads a national Provincial Partner Safety Leadership Panel and is a member of the Canadian Agricultural Systems Standards Oversight (CASSO) / Surveillance des norms des systèmes agricoles canadiens (SNSAC) committee as well as a member of the Progressive Agriculture Foundation (PAF) Safety Days Development Committee.

TBC

RESPECTMap: An innovative service mapping platform for organizations serving military veterans and civilian emergency response personnel.

Servane Roupnel, National Coordinator - Academic Outreach, Women's Outreach and Program Evaluation, Respect Forum

Servane Roupnel

Servane Lou Roupnel, is a PhD candidate in anthropology at Laval University (Quebec). Working on mental health issues within the Armed Forces and their impact on the transition to civilian life, she joined the Respect Forum team in February 2019. As national coordinator of University Outreach, Women’s Outreach and Program Evaluation, she supports collaboration between academics, practitioners, and personnel in uniform while evaluating the organization's various programs. She is also engaged in the production of knowledge about the specific challenges of women wearing uniforms through the creation of webinar-conference on the subject.

Trauma-Informed Care - Building a Culture of Strength

Nathan Gerbrandt, Managing Director, Crisis Trauma Resource Institute Inc.

Nathan Gerbrandt

Nathan is the Managing Director of CTRI. He is passionate about promoting trauma-informed practices that support individuals, organizations and communities. Nathan has refined skills in violence prevention, risk management, and collaborative treatment planning for vulnerable people. He holds a Master of Social Work degree and is a Registered Social Worker. Nathan believes that quality training can improve lives, and inspire a ripple effect that can extend to everyone we meet. He is co-author of A Little Book About Trauma-Informed Workplaces and the editor of many of CTRI’s training materials, including Trauma-Informed Care. Nathan is an engaging presenter who uses an interactive style to find real-life meaning in his workshops.

Human Factors / Human Performance

James Rychard, Firefighter/Instructor, Burlington Fire Department

James Rychard

James Rychard is a Firefighter, and R2MR Instructor from the City of Burlington, Ontario, Canada. He has been employed as a Firefighter for over 19 years, working for two diverse Fire Organizations: Cambridge Fire Department and the Burlington Fire Department, respectively. James has his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Bishop's University where he was a student-athlete competing as a Running Back for the Gaiters Football program. Upon graduation, James wanted to marry his education with his work experience. Eventually his desire drew James to become an advocate of mental and behavioural health for the Fire Service; he has directed his focus on organizational behaviour and team dynamics. Selected to present at Fire Rescue International 2019 in Atlanta, GA, Fire Rescue Canada 2020, and most recently for the Canadian Critical Incident Stress Foundation, James devised a presentation that looked deeper at the impact of life stressors, motivation, and the use of strengths in the Fire Service.

Review of CAFC Resolutions Status: A decade of resolutions; a decade of solutions!

TBC

Relationships: A Leadership Perspective!

Scott Wilkinson, Project Manager, Training and Safety Equipment, Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Services

Scott Wilkinson

Scott Wilkinson is a 30 year veteran of the fire and paramedic service and is the currently the Project Manager, Training and Safety Equipment for the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service. He is a Primary Care Paramedic and previously managed the WFPS company and chief officer development programs. He is the former Peer Support Coordinator for the WFPS and continues to work with the department’s behavioural health and wellness programs. Scott also serves on the NFPA Fire Officer Professional Qualifications Technical Committee and is the developer and program manager of the WFPS R.P.A.S. program. He was previously the Deputy Chief of the Springfield Fire & Rescue Service where he served for over 23 years.

TBC

Encapsulated Mass Timber: a new construction type for the 2020

NBC Marc Alam, Manager, Codes & Standards, Fire, Canadian Wood Council/Conseil canadien du bois

Marc Alam

Check back soon!

Storage

Shayne Mintz, Regional Director, NFPA – 15 min

Shayne Mintz

Shayne Mintz is the Canadian Regional Director for the National Fire Protection Association and has over 4 decades experience in fire and life safety. Shayne has served as fire chief for the City of Burlington, ON and has held the position of assistant deputy fire marshal in charge of Fire Protection Services for the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal. Mr. Mintz has a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Public Administration degree and is also a member of the Institute of Fire Engineers (MIFireE). He also holds Chief Fire Officer designation from Dalhousie University and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.

Transportation of Dangerous Goods by Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (Drones)

Mark Wunnenberg, VP Regulatory Affairs, Drone Delivery Canada Corporation

Mark Wunnenberg

Mr. Wuennenberg is a 38-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Air Force with over 4500 flight hours. He has over three (3) decades of experience working on regulatory and unmanned aircraft system (UAS) files, including UAS operations, regulatory and standards development, airworthiness, training and flight authorizations. Mark has created foundational UAS policies and regulations for domestic, international, civil and military operations. Most recently Mark was a civil aviation inspector and UAS SME with Transport Canada where he was instrumental in developing the current Canadian regulations for UAS. He holds an Airline Transport Pilots License. Mark is currently the VP of Regulatory Affairs at Drone Delivery Canada.

Machine Learning Methods Applied to UAV and Satellite Imagery to Characterize Fuels, with Implications to Wildland Firefighter Training

Jeff Boisvert, Associate Professor at the University of Alberta and Firefighter with Parkland County

Jeff Boisvert

Jeff Boisvert is an associate professor in the School of Mining Engineering at the University of Alberta, co-director of the Centre for Computational Geostatistics (CCG) and an active paid-on-call firefighter with Parkland County Fire Services. My research interests include spatial numerical modeling, uncertainty quantification, data analytics and machine learning. I am passionate about uncertainty management which focuses on making complex decisions based on limited/uncertain data in a way that maximizes effectiveness/value, minimizes environmental impact and minimizes risk. Projects are often framed as optimization problems, I use machine learning, artificial intelligence and optimization techniques to improve solutions. I have over 50 publications and I am involved in teaching industrial courses focused on teaching spatial modeling. I can be reached at jbb@ualberta.ca.

Beyond Dashboards: Using Aggregate Data to drive Quality Improvement in Fire Service

Scott Ramey, Division Chief, Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency

Scott Ramey

Scott Ramey is Division Chief of Medical Programs, Research, and Quality Improvement with Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency Service. Formerly a Critical Care Flight Paramedic with British Columbia Emergency Health Services and Ontario’s ORNGE Medical Transport; as well as Deputy Chief of Professional Standards and Quality with land Paramedic Services. Scott holds a BHSc in Paramedicine. He is a Master of Science student with Queens University department of graduate studies in Quality & Process Improvement, Human Factors, Risk & Safety.

Should Mass Notification Systems be used for only Emergencies?

Brian McKinney, President & CEO, Voyent Alert, ICEsoft Technologies

Brian McKinney

Brian McKinney, President & CEO of ICEsoft Technologies Inc., founded ICEsoft Technologies Inc. in December 2001. He is a leading entrepreneur and executive whose focus is on the development of enterprise level software. Building on ICEsoft’s suite of legacy products, Voyent Alert! was developed in 2018 as a new Software-as-a-Service offering for delivering context-enriched notifications and content for municipalities, regional governments, first responders, organizations, and institutions. Prior to founding ICEsoft Technologies, Brian co-founded AudeSi Technologies and worked at Nortel developing consumer products. Mr. McKinney holds a BSc. in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Victoria and an M.ASc, in Engineering from the same institution.

Introducing what3words: a free addition to the emergency toolkit that can help locate 9-1-1 callers

Gregoire de Chavanes, Partnerships - what3words

Gregoire de Chavanes

Gregoire de Chavanes is a member of the Partnerships team at what3words. He has been working with a number of Canadian emergency services, helping them to get set up with what3words.

How the Latest Rapid Access Solutions Aid Interoperability

Neal Zipser, Industry Affairs Manager, Knox Company

Neal Zipser

Check back soon!

Is there any more relevant topic in today’s Fire-Rescue industry than saving firefighter lives?

Gary Lee – Director of Sales, MEIKO Clean Solutions

Gary Lee

Gary Lee is the Director of Sales with MEIKO Canada based in Toronto.