'Still an ongoing issue'
MLA seeks clarity on role of ambulance responsibilities
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, June 20, 2016
HAY RIVER
Hay River North MLA Rocky (RJ) Simpson has sought clarification of the "grey area" of responsibility for highway ambulance service in the NWT, an area of particular concern to the Town of Hay River.
The MLA questioned Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) Minister Robert C. McLeod on the issue in the legislative assembly on June 7.
Simpson said highway rescue at accident scenes has been a "sore point" with the Town of Hay River for quite some time.
Yukon and British Columbia have assumed responsibility for providing such services, while Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario regulate highway rescue through legislation, the MLA said.
"In the NWT, however, the responsibility for highway rescue is stuck in a perpetual grey area," he said.
"As far as I've been able to ascertain, no single entity in the territory is responsible for providing this service and, as a result, no one funds it adequately."
In fact, he said a report by MACA in 2006 identified it as an ongoing issue but no recommendations from that report were implemented.
"As a frequent observer of town council meetings in Hay River, I can tell you that it is still an ongoing issue," Simpson said.
"Despite the lack of funding, the Town of Hay River has taken on the responsibility of servicing 800 kilometres of highway in the South Slave and sometimes into Northern Alberta. Highway rescue vehicles, tools, and training are an added expense beyond what is needed for in-town ground ambulance services. This means that the town incurs higher operational costs and higher recurring capital costs."
The MLA said the pod of money MACA has for available highway rescue is slated to be cut in this year's budget to $185,000 from $400,000.
"To summarize the situation, the GNWT has absolved itself of providing or paying for highway rescue services because they know that the good people of Hay River aren't prepared to let people die on the highway," Simpson said, calling it no way to govern. The MLA asked McLeod who has the legislative responsibility to provide highway rescue services in the NWT.
McLeod replied that, within the GNWT, no single department has legislative responsibility to provide ground ambulance service.
Simpson asked that, since responsibility has been deferred to the communities, what formula does MACA use to determine funding allocated to communities based on the amount of highway they have to service.
"We provide annual funding for community public infrastructure based on which community governments may use to procure equipment to support highway rescue and ground ambulance services beyond their municipal boundaries," said McLeod.
MACA's Public Safety Division is leading an inter-departmental committee formed in 2012 and composed of Justice, Transportation and Health to develop a strategy to support delivery of community-based ambulance and highway rescue services.
"The strategy actually resulted in $1.63 million being provided to community government to support their community-based ground ambulance and highway rescue services, including upgrades, major repairs or enhancements to existing mobile equipment or the purchase of new mobile equipment," said McLeod, adding steps were also take to enhance training for first responders.
"So there is a lot of work that has been done, and I think the next step is to try to identify the funding or find a way where we can provide the service or make it quite clear who is responsible."
McLeod said the issue has been on the books for about 10 years, and he will do his part to move the initiative forward.
