Lethbridge’s Mayor believes the city remains unable to accept the Alberta government’s proposed emergency medical services funding model despite the province extending the timeline for municipalities to meet its benchmark funding rate.
In a statement released Tuesday, Blaine Hyggen said the city recently met with Alberta’s Minister of Hospital and Surgical Health Services, Adriana LaGrange, following the province’s June announcement that it was pausing its procurement approach for EMS contracts with seven municipalities operating integrated fire and EMS services. He said the province has extended Lethbridge’s deadline to meet the Emergency Health Services benchmark rate until April 1, 2028, but the funding model itself has not changed.
“At this point, we have only been offered a delay of one year to reduce costs towards the current benchmark rate which, in our opinion, is not realistically achievable,” he said.
Hyggen added the city also received a letter Tuesday from LaGrange advising that the province intends to conduct a third-party review of the EHS benchmark rate and has invited Lethbridge to participate.
“While we are hopeful the review will address some of the concerns we have already identified, it might also result in the rate staying the same or going down even
further.”
“This does add another level of uncertainty. The review is not expected to be completed until the end of September and at this time, it would be fiscally irresponsible of council to change their direction and agree to these unknown costs.”
Hyggen said city council has advised Emergency Health Services that it cannot meet the current funding requirements but remains open to further negotiations.
Council rejected the proposed contract conditions earlier this year, arguing they would transfer a provincial health-care responsibility to municipal taxpayers. The city estimates the current funding model would add about $4.2 million to municipal costs in 2028 and $4.6 million in 2029, with additional increases expected in subsequent years because of wage growth and inflation.
Hyggen said council believes the proposal would require residents to contribute to ambulance services through both provincial taxes and municipal property taxes.
“Even though we’ve heard from some residents that they would be willing to pay extra for integrated Fire & EMS, we know this is not fair or sustainable for much of our community.”
He said council continues to support Lethbridge’s integrated fire and EMS model and hopes the city can continue providing ambulance services while working with the province toward a long-term agreement.
The Alberta government announced in June that it would pause negotiations on its proposed funding framework with the seven municipalities operating integrated fire and EMS services while a third-party review of the benchmark rate is completed. Negotiations are expected to continue during the review.
