Judge rules Wood Buffalo must start forwarding EMS calls back to AHS

An interim injunction was granted last week to Alberta Health Services which forced the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo to start forwarding emergency medical calls back to the provincial service by noon on Saturday.

The injunction came from a dispute between several municipalities and Alberta Health Services (AHS), which consolidated emergency medical dispatch services to a regionalized system in order to save money. The move had been underway across the province for years, but in January, Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge and Wood Buffalo were forced to switch over to the regional system.

Last Tuesday, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo voted to bring back its local system due to fears the regional one is causing delays in emergency service response times that put lives at risk.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Kent Davidson ruled in favour of the province on Friday, which had sought an injunction against Wood Buffalo. The injunction means the municipality must go back to the new regionalized system, which dispatches calls out of Peace River. 

The injunction will remain in place until a cross-examination and more evidence can be heard in court in March.

After the decision, Wood Buffalo Mayor Don Scott said in an email that the fight isn’t over yet. He said he plans to fight the injunction in March but respects the court's decision.

"This does not mean the Province is better at dispatching ambulances. It just means that this Provincial Government is willing to force us to comply," Scott stated. 

"The result of this extraordinary legal action by the Government of Alberta temporarily overturns a unanimous decision of a legally constituted municipal council. Most concerning, given recent experience, it will negatively affect patient outcomes in my Region."

During last Tuesday's council meeting, when the decision was made to reroute services back to their local station, Scott said the matter was so important it was risking dissolving council if the province saw fit.

"If this is the one issue that we need to stand our ground on no matter the cost, then I'm prepared to do it," Scott said.

"I challenge the provincial government to remove me as a mayor.”

The motion in council carried unanimously.

While Wood Buffalo chose to take drastic action on the issue, communities like Lethbridge, Calgary and Red Deer came together to speak out in support of Scott, with Nenshi calling the mayor a hero.

Shalee Kushnerick, the lawyer for AHS, called the move “reckless” and said the Wood Buffalo dispatch centre doesn’t have access to AHS health records or equipment and gave just 24 hours notice for the change.

“That creates a real risk to patient safety and it raises a lot of questions on what is going to happen,” Kushnerick said.

Turf war

The move comes as tension increases between Alberta municipalities and the provincial government.

Before the case was heard, Alberta Urban Municipalities Association president Barry Morishita called the case a “turf war” and said he knows the mayors are doing this because it is in best interests of their residents.

“I know these mayors, I know them well, I know that they don't go this far with things unless they (are) very concerned about the impact on the residents,” Morishita said.

Morishita said there was no consultation on this decision to regionalize services, and if there had been consultation, these issues would have been raised much earlier along in the process.

He compared the province to a "sleeping elephant," with municipalities feeling every twitch it makes.

“We really think that there has to be a meaningful dialogue, and a process to go through before these kinds of decisions (go ahead),” Morishita said, noting the effects are felt much more strongly by municipalities than by the province.

“Those should be considerations that the province always makes with policy.”