LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Mayors of Lethbridge, Red Deer and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo issuing one last plea for Albertans to speak up and stop EMS dispatch consolidation for those communities.
The four-page letter, written by Mayors Chris Spearman, Tara Veer and Don Scott, stresses yet again that this is not an issue of politics, partisanship, money or maintaining the status quo, that it’s a matter of life and death.
If consolidation goes ahead on Jan. 12, the Mayors say it will end integrated emergency response and degrade response times, taking the province backwards 30 years in terms of patient care.
Lethbridge, Red Deer and Wood Buffalo sent a letter to Premier Jason Kenney about four weeks ago offering to pay for local dispatch services from municipal funds but the Premier has yet to respond.
The three Mayors urge all Albertans to speak up with the provincial government before next week’s looming deadline, adding that this decision might not affect you today, but it will in the near future.