ALMAGUIN – The council of McMurrich/Monteith Township is balking at a 15 per cent increase in the ambulance levy.
The more than $7-million 2010 budget for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) was approved in January by the Town of Parry Sound, which is responsible for delivery of EMS services in the district.
According to McMurrich/Monteith clerk Cheryl Marshall their levy, which cost over $39,000 in 2009, has jumped to $45,700 for 2010. Overall, the EMS budget increased from $6.2 million to more than $7.3 million for the calendar year of 2010.
McMurrich/Monteith council has passed and circulated a resolution requesting “a review of the budget to reflect the current economic situation and to be lowered to a more acceptable level for 2010 budget year.”
Their letter to the director of emergency for the Town of Parry Sound, Sharon Montgomery-Greenwood, stated, “Council has discussed the substantial increase and find it unacceptable with the current economic times. Our council members would appreciate it if the committee would review the budget to see where any additional savings could be found in order to decrease the municipal levies.”
“They only way at this time to save significant funds is to decrease levels of services,” wrote the chair of the EMS advisory committee and Parry Sound town councillor, Jamie McGarvey, in response. “Approximately 85 per cent of the budget is salaries and benefits for staffing and with paramedics negotiating wage increases across the province annually at an approximate rate of three per cent this will continue to be the main driver in increase to the budget for years to come.”
McGarvey says increases in wages and increases in staffing levels in 2007/2008 by adding an onsite night shift cost about $800,000.
Montgomery-Greenwood says these increases are not new.
“This is a scenario that’s being going on for about three years,” she said. “We have made increased levels of service on the east side of this district.”
“We’ve made major enhancements on the east side,” said Montgomery-Greenwood.
Here, staffing level changes include a full night shift in both Burk’s Falls and South River as well as an on-call ambulance for Powassan at night.
“They had nothing before out that way,” said Montgomery-Greenwood. “There is a day shift with call backs in Powassan. We did that because we were putting extra stress on Muskoka and North Bay (EMS).”
McGarvey says they have entered into an arrangement where they will not be paying for cross-border billing feeds from Muskoka for the past eight years.
But, McGarvey adds, they are looking at making some additional staffing changes in Powassan.
“They need to go 24/7,” he said, adding the attendants in Powassan have reached a level of callbacks at night that they need to reevaluate the service provided in the area.
“The callbacks are great enough now that we’re taxing the paramedics. This is what we’re looking at for later in the year,” he said.
McGarvey says they can’t cut costs further without cutting services.
“We can’t do it and meet our legislative requirements,” he said.
“All participants are aware of the challenging economic times, however the committee also realizes there is a need to meet legislated standards as well as provide reasonable and consistent emergency medical services to every municipality in the District of Parry Sound,” wrote McGarvey.
The provincial government pays 100 per cent of the costs for unorganized territories and for First Nations.
“The rest they pay 50 per cent for and we’re required that the remainder of the 50 per cent comes from the municipalities,” she said.
Parry Sound EMS covers 9,400 square kilometres of territory from north of MacTier running across to Novar and up the Hwy. 11 corridor to Callander, including everything south of Lake Nipissing and the French River.
“The EMS Advisory Committee approved the recommendation that went to council for an increase to the levy of 15 per cent and the budget has passed at council level,” he said.
Both Garvey and Montgomery-Greenwood say this increase should have come as no surprise to the municipality.
“We have a reeves and mayors meeting every year,” said Montgomery-Greenwood, of a December meeting. “19 of the 22 municipalities were represented there.”
“One of the purposes of the meeting with the reeves and mayors in December of 2009 was to discuss the possible 12 to 15 per cent increase for 2010, provide you with all of the back-up information that was available, as well as discussing the findings of the IBI report and the recommendations on staffing levels. The report identified deficiencies in two locations and made recommendations to increase staffing levels, however, both the director and I emphasized that we would not be moving ahead with these increases without the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care’s commitment to fund their share upon implementation at 50 per cent,” wrote McGarvey.
Both McGarvey and Montgomery-Greenwood state that they will have to continue to look at expanded staffing throughout the region as the senior population continues to grow.
“As our population ages the demand on EMS increases,” said Montgomery-Greenwood.
“We have a heavy seniors population on both sides of the district,’ said McGarvey.