Ambulance service to eliminate seven positions in rural BC

Invermere to lose one full-time position

By BRIAN GEIS

Columbia Valley Pioneer, February 22, 2008

BC Ambulance Service intends to eliminate full-time paramedic positions in seven rural communities across the province, and Invermere made the hit list.

There are three levels of employment as a BC Ambulance paramedic:

• Full-time salaried positions
• $10 per hour, in-station, on-call (foxtrot) status
• $2 per hour, at-home, on-call status

Both foxtrot and at-home status jump to regular paramedic rates when emergencies occur.

The Ministry of Health is proposing to drop one of Invermere’s full-time salaried positions to foxtrot status.  There are currently 18 people operating two cars at BC Ambulance Service’s Invermere station.

Critics of the move say it will hurt recruitment and retention efforts in a tie of increasing difficulty recruiting health care professionals in the East Kootenays.  Interior Health officials recently organized a committee of community officials to address the problem of recruitment and retention.

Columbia River – Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald said he sees the move as a steady erosion of services from Invermere, including forestry services, court services and the recent elimination of a probation officer.

Mr. Macdonald stood up during Question Period on Tuesday and demanded an answer.

“The Columbia Valley needs improvements to paramedic service, but instead, Invermere Mayor Mark Shmigelsky tells me services are being reduced.  Instead of a properly paid, full-time paramedic position, this government will reduce wages to foxtrot status, which is $10 per hour.

“The ministry will not retain paramedics in Invermere at the pay level.  It will not happen.  The Tim Hortons pays more than that in Invermere, and they cannot get staff,” MLA Macdonald told the legislature.

“The question is for the Minister of Health.  What possible reason does the Minister of Health have for creating this instability in the paramedic service in Invermere?”

At foxtrot pay, he said, it’s inevitable that the ambulance service will experience retention problems.

“It’s a problem, because that’s a service that has to work,” he said.

John Strohmaier of Kamloops, president of the Ambulance Paramedics, Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 873, said there is little hope for the seven new applicants who took the Emergency Medical Responder Course in Golden this month and will be writing their exam.

“There’s not much point for a young person to pursue a career as a paramedic if there is no prospect of a full-time job,” he said.  “We have a real recruitment and retention problem in BC, and Invermere is no exception.”

Paramedic postions are also being eliminated in Castlegar, Chase, Chemainus, Fernie, Merritt, and Oliver.  Calls to the Ministry of Health were not returned by press time.