The two-year training has been in place at École secondaire Sieur-de-Coulonge (ESSC) for the past two academic years, allowing students to get their Firefighter 1 certification while still attending regular high school classes. Students in the program’s first class are set to receive their certification this spring.

Now, thanks to a resolution passed by the MRC Pontiac’s council of mayors on Mar. 19, the MRC will apply for a new round of funding to support another ESSC class to begin the training, and to make the training available at PHS.

The ESSC course is delivered as an elective, where students receive classroom instruction with their teachers and hands-on training with local fire departments. At its completion, students receive a certificate allowing them to serve as a firefighter in any Quebec municipality under 25,000 residents.

“The municipalities have really successfully integrated the students into their local fire services, and the fire departments have been a great help in coaching these students through the course,” said the MRC’s head of public security, Julien Gagnon.

Gagnon said the PHS program will function much in the same way, creating between 10-12 spots for students who will hopefully fill some of the gaps in local fire departments.

“It relieves some of the pressure of our firefighting recruiting that we seem to be struggling with,” he said.

“We’ve been struggling for years trying to maintain our staff [ . . . ] but this is sort of helping the municipalities keep our numbers up.”

Bristol firefighter Tracey Moore has seen some of these recruiting struggles first-hand, and said she has been fighting “tooth and nail” to get the training at PHS.

She said she is excited the new round of funding will train close to 30 new firefighters — another class of 16 at ESSC and about a dozen at PHS.

“We have employment issues throughout the Pontiac,” she said. “[Firefighting] is not a full-time employment opportunity, but it’s enough to keep the youth around.”

Matt Lottes, a volunteer firefighter and PHS teacher who will be a classroom teacher for the program, said he is excited to train new firefighters and to get exposure for the fire department.

“In Bristol, we have about 22 firefighters and just even a couple of extra would make such a big difference,” he said.

“I think even bigger than that, just getting the word out that there’s a fire department and people don’t know about it unless you have something like this that shows this is out there.”

Gagnon said if there is interest from students at Dr. Wilbert Keon High School in Chapeau, that they will find ways to make sure those students get the training as well.

PHS teacher Matt Lottes will be one of the classroom instructors for the new firefighter training at PHS this fall.

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