Red Deer Mayor, Tara Veer was joined by the mayors of Calgary, Lethbridge, and the County of Wood Buffalo in announcing their disapproval of the Alberta Government’s decision to move forward with a consolidated Emergency Medical Response dispatch.
The decision was recommended by the Ernst and Young report to save the province $5 million. However, Veer has argued that the change will cost the city lives. Red Deer has an integrated fire and emergency ambulance system. Fire fighters are cross-trained as paramedics and respond to 40 per cent of the medical calls in the city.
“There was no municipal consultation in the Ernst and Young report. There was no actual grounding in fact, other than that it would potentially save money,” said Veer.
On September 21st, Veer asked Central Albertans to write their MLA’s, Health Minister Tyler Shandro, and Premier Jason Kenney their concern over moving to a consolidated approach. Following her plea for support, Veer and the other mayors addressed their concerns in a private consultation with the Minister of Health on September 24th but were later blind sighted by the provincial decision to move forward publicly last week.
“We read it in the media Friday afternoon (October 16, 2020) around 2:15. An email had come to us with the letter at 2:10. We were essentially notified by the media…We were not consulted. We were not engaged. Through the public record, we can demonstrate that we made every effort to engage in good faith and to try to govern in relationship in the interests of the people we serve,” explained Red Deer Mayor, Tara Veer.
Veer and the other mayors felt good about their consultation with the Health Minister in September but we’re extremely disappointed in the outcome.
“The takeaway was that Minister Shandro would contact us if he had any questions. In the meantime, we've been preparing supplementary information to submit to the province. We've been awaiting supplementary information from Alberta Health Services,” said Veer.
With decisions moving forward without their concerns addressed, the mayors are trying to appeal to Premier Jason Kenney for support.
“The Premier has said that he believes in working with municipalities he has come to our caucus to say that he believes in working with municipalities to make sure the effective delivery of local service and we expect this in the interests of Albertans. He's also made it clear that he believes in working with his colleagues and cabinet government. We need to give him the opportunity now to do the right thing,” said Veer.
The consolidated dispatch service would mean around 65 people would lose their jobs in the affected cities and counties.
On average, Red Deer's current dispatch service responds in 71 seconds. The AHS communication standard has a 90 second response time, but in Edmonton, the dispatch averaged 92 seconds last quarter. The dispatch in County of Wood Buffalo works 48 seconds faster than AHS 90 per cent of the time.
Although the mayors feel overwhelmingly ignored, Veer is determined that they will keep working to correct the issue.
“I'm a firm believer that when you're on the side of right, you keep trying and you keep pursuing it and that's what we intend to do,” said Veer.
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