This week, Mayor Blaine Hyggen discussed the next steps in the Emergency Medical Services contract process for the City of Lethbridge.
According to Hyggen, Emergency Medical Services in Lethbridge has not changed. “Our dedicated men and women of the Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services continue to provide the excellent care for our community everyday. Even though our contract ended Sept. 30, we still remain the EMS provider.”
What has changed is Emergency Health Services Alberta has now issued a request for an expression of interest and qualifications for ground emergency health services, Hyggen explained.
“For Lethbridge, this is what we’d call the procurement process. It’s what the City has been anticipating. We’ve been preparing for this since May,” he said.
City teams have been working extremely hard to prepare a strong submission with the goal of being a successful proponent and continue to provide EMS in Lethbridge’s integrated service, Hyggen noted.
“As we enter into the competitive procurement process, we’re obviously unable to share details in order to protect the integrity of the process, but once a procurement is issued, communications related to that procurement become restricted until a contract is formally awarded and executed,” he shared. “This is important work being undertaken by our City Administration and this doesn’t include City Council at this time.”
Hyggen added the City wants to continue providing EMS and is committed to finding a sustainable way to meet that goal.
The process is scheduled to be completed by Jan. 7, 2027.
“We want to get that done sooner than later. We’re trying to do that as quickly as possible,” Hyggen added.
The City, Hyggen said, is a contractor, as are other municipalities throughout Alberta. “We’re a contractor for Alberta Health Services.”
The benchmarks originally proposed by the provincial government were not sustainable for Lethbridge, Hyggen noted. “It was too costly for the community, and this is for the ratepayers, so we’re trying to find a way to keep that service. This service is delivered by the province, and we’re the contractor.”
“They’re mandated to provide that service. We contract on their behalf, as we want to keep that integrated service. It’s our hope, through this procurement process, we’ll continue to do that, and that funding will come from the province, so it doesn’t impact the taxpayer,” Hyggen added.
