Updated: Thu Nov. 05 2009 4:08:38 PM

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Volunteer and part-time firefighters in Ontario will now have the same benefits as their full-time colleagues when it comes to receiving support and treatment for certain cancers and conditions developed on the job.

The province is extending its "presumptive legislation," which attributes certain cancers and heart injuries to years of fire fighting, to all firefighters and fire investigators.

"It's an important day for all of those firefighters and their families that no longer need the burden of proof to move forward on a disease that they may encounter," said Labour Minister Peter Fonseca.

"This is something that we wanted to do right from the start, we just needed to go through some of those consultations and get it done."

The new regulation will apply to volunteer and part-time firefighters and fire investigators for diseases diagnosed on or after Jan. 1, 1960, and allows them to get the treatment and support they need instead of making them wait for internal assessments decided on a case-by-case basis.

Bill Burns, President of the Firefighters Association of Ontario, praised the announcement, saying it will help not just firefighters but also their families.

"We've been lobbying for the past 2 1/2 to three years that it should be open to all firefighters in the province of Ontario," Burns said.

"By doing that it means that everybody will be covered and the families of the ones that have passed away are going to have some recognition."

Richard Boyes, president of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, said he was pleased with the extension because it "recognizes the dangers these fire personnel face in assisting and protecting Ontarians."

The cancers covered by the legislation, initially introduced in 2007, are brain cancer, esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, urethral cancer, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, kidney cancer and certain kinds of leukemia.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she was happy to see the government "finally doing what needs to be done."

The change, she said, ensures "that volunteer firefighters as well as part-time firefighters are treated with the same acknowledgment that their occupation creates exposures that lead to all kinds of occupational diseases like cancers and other problems."

There are about 11,000 full-time firefighters, 19,000 volunteer firefighters and 220 part-time firefighters in Ontario.

Forty-six fire investigators from the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal are on active duty.

Presumptive legislation already exists in several other provinces, including Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, as well as many American states.