On September 24th, 2020, Mayors and Fire Cheifs from multiple municipalities including Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge, and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo released a statement regarding their meeting with Minister of Health Tyler Shandro, and Minister of Municipal Affairs Tracy Allard, regarding Alberta Health Services plans to consolidate EMS dispatch services. 

“Today’s meeting with the Minister of Health demonstrated that the Minister is willing to seek out additional information from municipalities to understand the impact consolidation will have on local patients. Until the Minister formally reverses this decision and commits to keeping EMS dispatch local, we will continue to ask our community to put pressure on the government. We know that Alberta Health Services’ proposal to remove local EMS dispatch from Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge and Wood Buffalo and consolidate down to three provincial communication centres, will not result in cost savings, and even more concerning, puts Albertans lives at risk, in moments where seconds count.” – Mayor Tara Veer, City of Red Deer.

“When it comes to emergency services, the goal of our municipalities—and I believe the Province of Alberta—is to provide excellent patient outcomes using the most efficient system possible. Today we delivered evidence to the Ministers that makes it very clear that these goals are being met with our current system and removing integrated EMS dispatch will threaten the safety and wellbeing of Albertans. My hope is that they now understand the consequences of this decision and the Ministers will come to the same conclusion as those before them—it does not make sense to remove EMS dispatch from our communities.” – Mayor Chris Spearman, City of Lethbridge.

(L-R) City of Lethbridge Fire Chief, Marc Rathwell, City of Red Deer Emergency Services Manager, Ken McMullen, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Fire Chief, Jody Butz, and City of Calgary Director of Community Standards, Richard Hinse. Photo courtesy of the City of Red Deer.

“After today's meeting with the Ministers I remain greatly concerned, but I believe the information we shared is one step forward in this very important process. This consolidation is not about improving patient outcomes. This is the very same consolidation that was proposed over 10 years ago. We fought it then and won because the province recognized the negative impact it would have. Our provincial officials once again need to recognize that and reverse this decision.” – Mayor Don Scott, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

“Today’s meeting was a good opportunity for us to detail to Minister Shandro why we believe that 911 dispatch should be operated at a municipal level. The local knowledge and integration with fire services, who are first on the scene to deliver life-saving care in 50% of cases, cannot be overlooked if safety outcomes are the number one priority. It is now up to the Minister to make his determination with the facts in front of him.” – Mayor Naheed Nenshi, City of Calgary.