L & A seeks more funding to cover northern ambulance costs.

Lennox and Addington County Warden Henry Hogg met with officials from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long term Care last week as part of the Ontario Good Roads/Ontario Municipal Association annual conference in Ottawa.

Hogg’s presentation, which was released to the press by L & A County, outlined the fact that ratepayers in Lennox and Addington now pay about 60% of ambulance costs, and that is projected to rise to 70% by 2015.

The province made a commitment in 2006 to pay 50% of the cost for operating the service.

Since then a decision has been made by L & A County to bring wage and working conditions at the Northbrook and Denbigh bases into line with those at the ambulance bases in Napanee.

This was necessary not only for reasons of equity but also because the county was having difficulty attracting paramedics with lower wage rates. Many of the paramedics working in the North were full-time employees elsewhere who picked up part-time work when they were available, and this was not seen as sustainable.

As the result of this change, costs went up. Since provincial funding is based on the average cost of a call, the lower volume services in Denbigh and Northbrook have changed the cost ratio for the service as a whole.

“The certification of the County’s volunteer paramedics and the subsequent conversion of the Northbrook -Denbigh Division of our Ambulance Service to full -time/part-time paramedics with wage and benefit parity with the paramedics of the Napanee Division by 2014 has dramatically altered the 50/50 cost sharing balance achieved in 2006,” according to the presentation.

Statistics were also presented, which show that based on the current formula, the province spends a lot less on a per capita basis funding ambulance services in Lennox and Addington than it does elsewhere.

“An analysis in 2008 of the provincial grant provided to other rural eastern Ontario counties for ambulance service indicated that Lennox and Addington was receiving substantially less per capita. Lennox and Addington’s annual provincial grant for ambulance service equaled $43 per capita, while Haliburton’s was $100 per capita, Prescott Russell’s was $61 per capita and neighbouring Renfrew County’s was $67 per capita. If Lennox and Addington received the corresponding amount to Renfrew County our annual provincial grant for ambulance service would increase by almost one million dollars per year,” the document concludes.

The Denbigh and Northbrook ambulance bases also provide service for residents in Frontenac County, and the Frontenac County ambulance service is charged a premium for those calls, but that premium does not entirely offset the cost of maintaining the Nothbrook and Denbigh bases.