Mayors of four cities affected by a change to emergency medical dispatch services say they were blindsided by the move and believe it will put lives of their residents at risk.

Alberta announced Tuesday that it is consolidating all EMS dispatch call sites to save money and improve patient care.

The change will affect EMS 911 dispatch services in Calgary, Lethbridge, Red Deer and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which includes Fort McMurray.

Alberta Health Services has been running a dispatch system for the rest of the province since 2009.

It says the consolidation will allow the EMS system to send the nearest available ambulance to a patient regardless of geographic boundaries.

Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer says she is frustrated to be revisiting the issue again after several previous governments rejected a similar change.

“This issue is about people and not politics because, in the chain of survival, seconds matter,” Veer said during an online news conference Wednesday with Wood Buffalo Mayor Don Scott, Lethbridge Mayor Chris Spearman and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

Scott, who is a former member of the legislature, said he’s strongly opposed to the government’s decision.

“This is about service delivery and saving lives,” he said. “Our current model works and, for this region, it has been in place since 1979.”

Scott said his region has a service delivery area that is the size of Nova Scotia.

“We often describe our location by landmarks and markers,” he said. “There is absolutely no doubt the AHS model will cause delays. Time is lives.”

Spearman said the change will also jeopardize a timely response to EMS service in Lethbridge and parts of southern Alberta.

“This is about saving lives, period,” he said. “A consolidated system will mean people will die unnecessarily.”

Nenshi agreed that people will die under the new dispatching system.

“When you are phoning 911, you are phoning 911 because you are having the worst day of your life — something extremely bad is happening,” he said. “The system we have right now allows you to get the help you need quickly and efficiently; the system that is being proposed requires you to tell your story again and again and maybe again.

“It means that it will take longer for you to get help, and it won’t save any money.”

The government has said it will save more than $6 million per year by consolidating the services.

Nenshi said any cost savings are already being subsidized by the municipalities.

The four mayors have asked for a meeting with Health Minister Tyler Shandro and called on Premier Jason Kenney to reverse the decision.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2020

The Canadian Press

EDMONTON — Conor Garland and Taylor Hall each scored in the third period and the Arizona Coyotes beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 Wednesday.

Now the Coyotes, seeded 11th in the West in the NHL’s restart, can eliminate the sixth-seeded Predators in Game 4 on Friday in this best-of-five qualifying series.

Christian Dvorak scored on Arizona’s first shot of the game, and Coyotes scored three in the third for the victory capped by Carl Soderberg’s empty-netter inside the final two minutes.

The Predators thought they had a 2-1 lead 1:13 into the third period on a goal by Kyle Turris, but the Coyotes won their challenge of offside with Nashville centre Matt Duchene found over the blue line on review. Turris later hit the post with 6:19 left.

Garland put the Coyotes ahead to stay with his wrister from the slot at 7:08 of the third. Hall padded the lead with 4:22 left with his first goal of the series on a snap shot from the left circle. The Coyotes had been 1-of-9 on the man advantage through the first two games.

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 39 saves for the victory in his third start in four games and second in as many days.

Viktor Arvidsson scored Nashville’s lone goal.

The Coyotes stuck with Kuemper in net with Antti Raanta out. Raanta apparently was hurt during warmups Tuesday and left the Coyotes bench during the second period.

The Predators dominated the first five minutes putting shot after shot on Kuemper. Then Niklas Hjalmarsson took a shot on net that Dvorak redirected past Juuse Saros at 5:09 of the first, giving Arizona a 1-0 lead. Kuemper made 19 saves in the first period, setting a franchise record for most saves in a period of a playoff game.

Arizona captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson went to the locker room after being hit by Predators forward Austin Watson at 6:28 of the second.

Barely a minute later, Nashville finally scored for the first tie at any point of this series. The Coyotes turned it over in the neutral zone with Predators forward Filip Forsberg feeding the puck to Arvidsson, and he put a slap shot under Kuemper’s blocker at 7:31 of the second tying it up at 1-1.

Nashville went on the power play less than a minute after Turris’ goal was overturned. Kuemper came out of the net to stop a shot from Arvidsson in the slot. Then Derek Stepan clanked the puck off the crossbar on a short-handed try.

Notes: Kuemper topped the previous mark of 18 saves in a playoff period held by Sean Burke, Ilya Bryzgalov and Mike Smith. … This was the ninth time Kuemper has started games on back-to-back games. He had been 5-3 with a .939 save percentage and 1.85 goals-against average in the second game. … This was the first back-to-back playoff games for Nashville since Games 2 and 3 of the first-round against Detroit in 2004.

UP NEXT

Game 4 is Friday.

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