Every citizen has the right to see fire department records
May 07, 2008
To the Editor:
Although I know nothing about the firefighters dispute with their council, as an archivist, I do know quite a lot about municipal records management. Here is a quote from a memorandum (PFSG 04-60-12) issued four years ago by the Office of the Fire Marshall regarding records management:
“Fire department records are municipal records and therefore subject to the Municipal Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. ... Under the Municipal Act municipalities have a legislated responsibility to have a records management program, which would include fire department records.”
So, it isn’t just the mayor and council who have a right to request them, it is every citizen who has that right. The Municipal Act sec. 253(1) states that "any person may, at all reasonable times, inspect any of the records under control of the clerk...".
The clerk or records manager of a municipality classifies all documents according to the Ontario Municipal Records Management System and determines access and retention periods according to law. All municipalities have a retention bylaw which assigns these classifications and retention periods to every document generated by a municipality.
Some documents have access restricted by acts such as the aforementioned MFIPPA, the Registry Act, the Vital Statistics Act, the Child and Family Services Act, etc., but none of these restrictions would apply to the training records.
It is clear from the legislation that all fire department records are deemed to be under the control of the clerk.
As an archivist, I would urge the fire chief to reread the Fire Marshall’s memo of September 2004, which advises close co-operation with municipal staff, and act upon it immediately.
Celia Finley
Burk’s Falls
Editorial
