When Bruce Masales was diagnosed with stage 4 bladder cancer, he said the news came without warning.
But as a long-time volunteer Halifax firefighter, Masales said he was at least comforted by his belief that he would receive financial compensation.
However, Masales said he was told he was not eligible within the provincial workers’ compensation committee or other municipal insurance coverage, and fell in the gap between the two systems.
“I sat there – I was a little shocked,” Masales said recently.
Masales said doctors found cancer during an unrelated surgery performed last summer.
He was diagnosed with metastatic stage 4 bladder cancer in August 2024 – meaning it has spread to other organs. Masales was initially told that he had about a year of life.
He said, “I’m going, ‘Okay, wait a moment, what happened in stages 1, 2, 3, have I bypassed it?’…because I’m not asymptomatic.”
Masales spent 21 years as a volunteer career in his family community on Oriental Passage and retired in 2017.
He said he liked the role. Being a volunteer firefighter and handling the day-to-day work is hard work, but “giving back to the community” is important.
Since 1993, the workers’ compensation committee has presumed that firefighters have covered bladder cancer, recognizing the increased risk of cancer associated with firefighters.
“I never smoked in my life, never took drugs in my life, and didn’t drink enough to say I drink,” Masales said. “I know those three people who overdose, they are healthy as a horse.”
Masales initially applied to the Workers’ Compensation Commission because he appears to meet the criteria for serving for at least 15 years to qualify for bladder cancer. But his claim was rejected because Halifax-area municipalities didn’t start payments until January 2021 – after Masales left.
“turn up…… [Firefighters’ Compensation Act] That says the province will take care of their firefighters,” Mazales said.
“Well, they will only take care of them in the municipality where they are, where they pay.”
The province requires municipalities to provide cancer coverage to volunteer firefighters in 2020. Prior to that, the province had a pieced together throughout the province, with some areas using workers’ compensation committees and others having only private insurance, with varying levels of benefits.
Halifax used a private insurance policy for volunteers between 1996 and 2021. Municipal spokesman Laura White said the insurance benefits from cancer at $5,000, but only for volunteers diagnosed in “active service.”
Masales said he wondered if they could fall into this gap if they retire before 2021 because cancer usually takes years to show up.
Masales joined in 1996 and said about 1,200 volunteers across the municipality work with professional firefighters, such as Stop 16. Halifax has approximately 560 active volunteers and 550 professional members over the years.
Masales said: “The HRM fire is the largest fire department in Nova Scotia, right?
“But I think the province has put the ball down because where the government is here… someone must have noticed it at some point in time,’ [WCB]. ”
Eight claims denied in recent years
Steve MacDonald, spokesman for the Nova Scotia Workers Compensation Commission, said the commission received 60 cancer-related compensation claims for cancer between 2020 and 2024 for volunteer firefighters across the province.
The board of directors did not provide benefits in eight of these cases. This may have happened for a number of reasons, MacDonald said, “it is likely that there is already coverage, but the claim may not have been made for another reason.”
McDonald did not say the claim came from a privacy issue.
Masales said any compensation would have a real impact because he wanted something that he couldn’t afford before “before I go”, such as visiting Gibsons in BC, where they filmed the iconic TV series Beachcombers. He also wanted to improve the house and make things easier for his wife.
Last fall, Masales underwent four rounds of chemotherapy. His doctors believe he has about two years left with the support of immunotherapy treatments.
Although he had a little more time to get news than he initially thought, Masales said he felt like “Wile E. Coyote and Acme Anvil sat down and waited for the drop.”
Masales said he went to MLA Barbara Adams, who studied his case but said there was nothing she could do.
Provincial spokesman Greg Hanna said the Nova Scotia government has been looking for ways to better support firefighters, “The focus now is to make sure all active firefighters are covered for moving forward.”
The Halifax Professional Firefighters Association represents professional members rather than volunteers, but President Brendan Meagher said every firefighter dealing with cancer deserves support.
He said, “Don’t feel unjust” because they were diagnosed after they left because they were diagnosed.
“You know, there is a responsibility in the city to make sure people are taken care of,” Meagher said.
library. Masales’ local councillor Becky Kent said she couldn’t talk about his specific case, but it was always “dissuasion” when the system wasn’t suitable for the people they were designed to support.
Asked if she would explore a city-funded program to help volunteer firefighters’ gap, Kent said it depends on the model. But she said she would consider “any good idea.”
CBC asked to talk to Halifax Cao Cathie O’Toole about this gap in volunteers, but she rejected the request.
