Lanark County Warden Peter McLaren has signed a letter alongside three other regional wardens, including UCLG’s Nancy Peckford, seeking a meeting with the City of Ottawa to discuss paramedic-service billing.
It’s been a point of contention since provincial legislation changes in 2016 made it so municipalities didn’t have to compensate each other for provided services outside of their jurisdictions.
The letter points out that even so, more than 100 eastern municipalities continue financial support for outside-paramedic responses to their communities.
McLaren says a staffing shortage in Ottawa leads to a snowball effect, and that impacts their ability to serve their own taxpayers.
McLaren says they’re doing what they can to ensure calls to Ottawa doesn’t impact local services, but the candle is burning at both ends.
Lanark County made a presentation to Ontario’s Minister of Health at the recent Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference to ask them to talk to the city of Ottawa about the issue.
Story by Grant Deme
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