A systemic and generational change is underway in Chatham-Kent, where both the police and fire departments want to hire more women.
The Chatham-Kent fire department is made up of about 400 people and only one woman is a full time front line firefighter. There are also 20 female volunteers.
"This is a systemic issue across the province, it's not just here in south western Ontario,” says Fire Chief Bob Crawford. “I think all the communities are struggling to see how best we can get a workforce that's highly effective and highly efficient and still is inclusive and represents a broad spectrum of who lives in our community."
A new Stats Canada study also reports the Chatham-Kent Police Service has the lowest proportion of female officers in the entire country, 13 per cent of the 155 police officers are women.
Mike - "It's not just about women, it's not just about visible minorities everybody should apply and we will work through our process and hopefully get the best people that we can," says Staff Sgt. Mike Domony.
In an effort to change those stats, an all-female job fair was held at the Bradley Convention Centre on Wednesday.
Crawford plans to hire 25 new people by the summer and he wants the new recruits to be both qualified and inclusive.
"We want this to be a welcoming work place and we want the crews that respond to emergencies in Chatham-Kent to be reflective of the people that live here," says Crawford.
