Whereas sweeping changes have recently been instituted by the British Columbia Emergency Health Services in the manner of staffing and compensating paramedic service providers; And whereas the impact of those changes has led to a dramatic drop in coverage for many rural and remote communities: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM urge the provincial government to intervene and ensure that British Columbia Emergency Health Services institutes an adequate interim framework to restore paramedic service levels in rural and remote communities and encourage 100 coverage for British Columbians no matter where their communities are situated in the province.
Ministry of Health Since 2021, BC Emergency Health Services BCEHS, in partnership with the Government of BC, has made significant changes and investments to improve and stabilize staffing throughout the province, including in rural and remote communities. These actions resulted in hundreds of paramedics in rural and remote areas throughout the province being moved from on-call paramedic positions to permanent paramedic positions. The Rural, Remote, First Nations and Indigenous COVID-19 Response Framework was announced by Premier Horgan in April 2020, to ensure people in rural and remote areas could access critical health care services. As part of this work, BCEHS added 55 new ground ambulances and 5 new air resources to enhance access to prehospital care for people in rural and remote communities in BC. With the addition of these 5 air ambulances, BCEHS currently has 18 air ambulance to serve people throughout BC. On September 2022, BCEHS posted 254 new permanent positions around the province to transition the additional temporary positions introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to permanent positions. In June 2022, a temporary pay incentive was put in place to help bridge staffing challenges, bolster paramedic coverage, and improve service levels in 26 smaller rural and remote communities. This temporary incentive concluded on October 21, 2022, with a positive impact in some of the hardest-to-staff areas of the province, including Daajing Giids. Before the original incentive program was set to expire, BCEHS and Ambulance Paramedics and Dispatchers Association of BC CUPE 873 CUPE 873, with assistance from government, collaborated on a more robust temporary pay incentive program to help ensure people in rural and remote communities provincewide have access to the emergency pre-hospital care they need. This incentive was put in place on October 22, 2022, and will remain in place until BCEHS and CUPE 873 have a new collective agreement in place. Negotiations for a new collective agreement began on October 3, 2022. BCEHS continues to monitor staffing models closely and are considering other options to help meet the service needs of the diverse rural and remote communities. This includes a continued focus on building paramedic capacity through a national recruitment campaign and local engagement in communities across the province.