MD OF BIGHORN – The MD of Bighorn is seeking support for the province to develop a form of compensation for emergency services that are dispatched on to Crown lands.
A resolution will be voted on Nov. 9 at the Rural Municipalities Association (RMA) and asks the Alberta government for either a fee for service or a compensation schedule.
“It has come to council’s attention that when we respond to emergency calls on Crown land, these calls can be very complicated, high needs, take lots of time and resources to respond to appropriately,” said Reeve Lisa Rosvold. “We are not able to submit an invoice to be compensated for those calls.”
Since 2017, the MD of Bighorn has responded to 140 calls on Crown lands. Provincial Crown lands accounted for the largest number at 43, with the Kananaskis Improvement District and Bow Valley Wildlands Park accounting for 17 and 16, respectively.
There is no current compensation from the provincial government for medical distress calls, search and rescue or off-highway vehicle accidents. That financial burden falls completely on a municipality.
“Whereas if we respond to a call in the forestry reserve or on the highway, we are able to submit an invoice and be compensated for those emergency calls,” Rosvold said. “We are looking to the province to relieve some of the financial burden.”
Rosvold said after it was brought to her attention, she asked former Minister of the Environment and Parks Jason Nixon how the MD could be compensated for the calls.
“We didn’t get much of a response but what I did get was a number of people from other municipalities coming up to me and saying they would support us in a resolution,” Rosvold said. “I didn’t realize it was something that was happening across Alberta.”
If the resolution is passed, RMA will lobby and work with the government to see where something could fit into a future budget.
Rosvold added there could already be funding sources in place to help with compensating the MD.
“I think with some of the funding coming in through the Kananaskis Conservation Pass, and Crown land camping permits, there might be a funding source that is already there that could help support these costs,” Rosvold said.
Rosvold added the financial cost is compounded by the shortage of volunteers the fire departments in the MD are dealing with. There are three on-call fire halls in the MD, and the area that supports most of the calls on Crown lands comes out of the Jameson and Ghost fire halls.
“We need more on-call firefighters to help support these calls because once we get our staff and firefighters, it takes away the resources to help protect our residential areas when they are responding to emergency calls on Crown land every weekend.”
