(rdnewsNOW/Troy Gillard)

By Troy Gillard, rdnewsNOW

AUMA supports keeping EMS dispatch local in Red Deer, three other cities

Nov 12, 2020 | 6:23 AM

RED DEER, AB – The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) is throwing its support behind the fight by four cities to keep their municipally-operated EMS dispatch centres.

Officials with the cities of Red Deer, Lethbridge, Calgary and Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo maintain the decision to consolidate EMS dispatch is “irresponsible, dangerous, and unnecessarily threatens the health and safety for all Albertans who need emergency ambulance care.”

The AUMA is now joining the call for Premier Kenney to overturn the decision made by Health Minister Tyler Shandro to consolidate EMS dispatch.

“As municipalities are the level of government closest to their citizens, AUMA favours the development of local solutions to meet local needs. Meaningful municipal engagement is critical to ensuring that changes to provincial policies and programs are successfully implemented, and AUMA is extremely troubled that once again, a decision was made around consolidating 911 dispatch services without consulting the affected municipalities,” said AUMA President Barry Morishita.

“As more Alberta municipalities begin to examine integrated dispatch and public safety models, where fire, police, rescue, and emergency medical professionals exist in a single service group, we respectfully request that the province enable municipal autonomy, especially when it results in improved and cost-effective service delivery.”

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“AUMA’s call to keep ambulance dispatch local demonstrates that this issue affects every Albertan. The lives of all Albertans are at risk, and we implore our provincial leaders to reverse the decision to consolidate emergency ambulance dispatch and keep dispatch local,” said Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer. “Alberta Health Services is relying on a plan developed more than 11 years ago, and many of the communities who were previously switched to AHS consolidated dispatch immediately experienced a degradation of emergency services in critical life and death emergencies.”

Despite continued opposition and her colleagues in Lethbridge, Calgary and Wood Buffalo, the province is moving ahead with consolidation EMS dispatch in those cities with three AHS-run communications centres in Calgary, Edmonton and Peace River.

AHS maintains that Albertans will notice no difference when they call 911 for emergency services, saying that ambulance response times will not change and medical first response through fire departments will “continue exactly as it does today.”