The Cold Lake Ambulance Society (CLAS) has to explore alternative sources of funding after the MD of Bonnyville council rejected their request for money to buy a new ambulance.
“I'm very disappointed in the MD of Bonnyville, I was really hoping they would support us,” said Debra Pelechosky, president of CLAS.
She added, “Because our call volume has increased so much in the last two to three years, our cars are on the road much more so they mile out sooner and it's just been kind of hard on us when we're having to replace an ambulance every one to two years.”
Pelechosky made a presentation to the MD in September, requesting council consider contributing a third of the cost of a new vehicle, or $40,000.
“The whole reason that we were doing the presentation is because we're trying to keep the current level of service that we have and with that current level of service we're not able to put money away for capital.”
Pelechosky said Hearts for Healthcare helped the society prepare a letter requesting funding from the MD, telling the society that they would help pay for the new ambulance if the City of Cold Lake and the MD were on board as well.
“If we don't have the MD as a partner I'm not sure if Hearts for Healthcare will provide funding.”
In its budget, Cold Lake city council has assigned $40,000 to CLAS for funding a portion of the new ambulance.
“It's unfortunate that the MD of Bonnyville doesn't want to help the Cold Lake Ambulance Society so I guess really the ball's in the court of the Cold Lake Ambulance Society to determine what that impact is.”
MD administration recommended council reject the request for funding on the grounds that ambulance procurement is under Alberta Health Service's mandate.
“I believe council is quite aware of the different pressures upon the ambulance agencies and the concerns from our community, however administration is recommending that council deny the request from the Cold Lake Ambulance Society in that this is not a municipal responsibility,” said CAO Chris Cambridge.
Council discussed the fact that Cold Lake currently has to dip into capital funding from the province to keep two full time ambulances and one on-call ambulance operational.
“I can understand the city being willing to fund $40,000 if they're conditioned to having the ambulance stay in the city,” said Reeve Ed Rondeau. “We are not in favour of buying ambulances because that is AHS's responsibility.”
The society estimates it will receive 2,500 calls by the end of 2015, up from 1,632 in 2012. In 2014, the Cold Lake Ambulance Society logged 180 hours in ‘code red', meaning there were 180 hours throughout the year that there was no ambulance in the city. The number of hours in code red in 2013 was 258 and in 2012, there were 196 hours in code red.
“It may mean a reduction in the level of service so that we can put money away for capital,” Pelechosky noted. “We've had many discussions with AHS and basically they only provide so much funding and they're not willing to increase that funding, in fact they decreased it very slightly so I don't know where we're going to go.”
Council plans on sending a letter to AHS notifying them that they turned down CLAS's request for funding. The society will meet with AHS representatives this week for a quarterly meeting and plans to bring up its financial constraints.
