Whereas communities across BC are facing significant increase in calls to respond to emergency medical incidents; And whereas this increase in calls can be directly attributed to the prehospital patient care provided by fire departments in response to the opioid crisis and limited resources of the Provincial BC Ambulance Service; And whereas many first responder agencies have signed agreements to provide this service without any financial funding to support the increased service requests required in their communities: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask the provincial government to develop a funding model to compensate local governments who provide emergency medical services through their fire and rescue services fulfilling the responsibility of the provincial government with consideration given to community population and the fire departments authorized level of emergency medical response.
