Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer continues to ask Central Albertan residents to speak up against EMS consolidation. Veer has been fighting consolidation with officials from Calgary, Lethbridge, and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo for nearly a year and recently released a statement imploring Central Albertans to take action before consolidation takes place on January 12th, 2021.

“This issue affects all 4.4 million of us. Alberta was once modelled after and led the way on emergency response best practice. Through the municipal and provincial partnership, we had integrated, Advanced Life Support, public emergency response. Our concern is not just that removing local dispatch is the death knell for integrated emergency service response, but that the integrated, Advanced Life Support, public emergency response system our province was once respected for, will become siloed, Basic Life Support, private emergency response,” said Mayor Veer in her statement.

In early December, the City of Red Deer, Lethbridge and the County of Wood Buffalo announced that they were willing to pay from municipal funds to safeguard local integrated emergency dispatch in a formal letter to Premier Jason Kenney that has yet to receive a response.

The City believes EMS dispatch consolidation will mean the end of integrated emergency response, and the degradation of emergency dispatch. In Red Deer, firefighters are cross-trained as paramedics increasing their ability to respond to a higher variety of calls.  Therefore, fire and ambulance response works collaboratively and effectively to respond to calls.  

“If the Province follows through on their plan to cut local dispatch, local medical 911 calls will only be responded to by ambulances, which are often tied up at local hospitals or are away in other communities. The Advanced Life Support-trained fire medics, which are only four to six minutes away, would remain at their fire stations because AHS dispatchers will not immediately send the fire truck to an emergency resulting in patients waiting longer to receive emergency care. This is wrong and a waste of local public resources – and it takes our province back 30 years in time in terms of emergency response times and patient care,” said Veer in her Statement.

Veer says to date, 39 Alberta communities have gone on record to say that a consolidated EMS dispatch has meant degradation in those services.  

She wants Albertans to know that their voices carry weight with elected officials and matter during times like these. Finally, she pleas to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to reverse the change.

You can view the full Mayor’s statement by clicking here.