The Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-09-28, Page 16Wednesday, September 28, 2016 • Lucknow Sentinel 5
Huron County council stays pat on ending Advanced Care Paramedic program
Darryl Coote While the original vote was a nar-
Editor row eight to seven, this one was
heavily slanted with many who had
Huron County council voted last previouslyvoted to keep the program
week to stand with its previous deci- now voting against rescinding.
sion to eliminate its Advanced Care Goderich mayor Kevin Morrison
Paramedic (ACP) program. told council while he voted to keep
Roughly 40 citizens and over a the program in July, and that he still
dozen paramedics, who filled the sees the ACP as a "beneficial" pro -
chambers and spilled out into the gram for Huron County, he can't vote
hallway during council Sept. 21, to rescind.
2016, were silent as council voted 11 "Upon the information provided
to three against rescinding its July 6 by our solicitor today, I have a prob-
decision to terminate the service for lem with rescinding this motion the
all of Huron County. way it is now and I'm pleased council
Brad Watters, a Huron County is dealing with this in a public form,"
ACP and vice president of the Cana- he said.
dian Union for Public Employees To rescind the motion would set a
(CUPE) 4513, told media following bad precedent, he told The Signal
the vote that he was "disappointed" Star in a follow up interview.
with council's decision. "In order for me to go back on
"We went in optimistic about it what the majority of council's deci-
and we were hoping for obviously a sion was we had to have new infor-
different result," he said outside the mation, and with the new informa-
council chambers. tion that we did receive from the
The issue over the ACP program county solicitor in the closed session
first arose in June and was followed it did not warrant me to support the
by lengthy debates at Huron County motion to rescind" he said.
council. Goderich deputy mayor Jim Don -
Those in favour of keeping the pro- nelly agreed with the stance, telling
gram claimed ACPs provide better county council he opposed a motion
healthcare through being better at his Goderich council similar to the
trained and more capable than Pri- one Central Huron passed on this
mary Care Paramedics (PCP). premise.
Those opposed said it costs too "I voted not to bring this to council
much to justify infrequent emer- as a recommendation from Goder-
gency healthcare service as there are ich council because I will not wel-
not enough ACPs to deal with every come recommendations from the
emergency call. And hiring addi- municipality what we should do and
tional, less-expensive PCPs with the I don't expect to get any there," he
money currently earmarked for said, adding that he originally voted
ACPs could lower emergency to end the program through
response times and improve service attrition.
to the outer regions of the county. He said council needs to consider
Since the narrow July vote to end the proper context of the situation to
the program, members of the public make the proper judgement, the
have been protesting Huron Coun- decision facing council does not
ty's decision through sending letters have as an extreme outcome as some
to municipal counties and holding have suggested.
presentations during councils. They "This is not the situation were on
even started a change.org petition the one hand it's utopia and on the
that has almost 2,000 signatures in other hand it's perdition," he said.
support of continuing the ACP For him, the infrequency of ACPs
program. responding to calls, which he cited at
The motion came back to Huron less than 50 per cent, and the infre-
County on Wednesday after it was quency of them performing proce-
tabled by Central Huron County in dures PCPs aren't trained to perform
early September, following its coun- make the service too expensive with
cil having received a deluge of oppo- rising taxes.
sition to ending the program from its Both councillor Roger Wyatt, the
constituency. deputy reeve for Ashfield -Colborne -
Once proceedings began, the Wawanosh, and Huron East mayor
crowd was asked to leave for a closed Bernie MacLellan said while council
session where the mayors received was given a large document of infor-
legal advice and new undisclosed mation none of it was new.
information on the matter from the Bernie said he is against rescind -
county's solicitor. ing because they had all the informa-
However, when council resumed, tion in July.
the mayors were unwavered by the "I see no reason to bring it back
new information or the full council and have another discussion as we
chambers. have no new information that needs
Lucknow Tuesday Night Bowling scores for Sept. 13
Tuesday Night Bowling - Sept. HIGH SINGLE: FEMALE: Anita
13, 2016 Elliott 216, MALE: Luke Smith
Over 200 Scores: Charles Green 243.
222, 221, Ron Elliott 232, 219, Brad HIGH TRIPLE FEMALE: Anita
Engel 228, Luke Smith 216. Elliott 531, MALE: Ron Elliott 620.
Darryl Coote/Editor
Members of the public and local
paramedics stood by on Sept. 21,
2016 as Huron County council voted
not to rescind the termination of the
Advanced Care Paramedic (ACP)
program.
to be evaluated," he said.
Jim Ginn, mayor of Central Huron,
said he thinks healthcare should be
decided by the province, but since
it's in council's hands, he is opposed
to rescinding.
"It's very hard to ask someone to
review information and come to a
different conclusion, and I can't do
that, he said.
The motion was defeated without
a recorded vote.
CUPE 4513 Watters told the media
following council that he is not going
to continue fighting council's
111111s'iUCI1 W *illi i1•V
decision, but he believes the issue of
ACPs in Huron County will be revis-
ited in time.
"I'm sure it will come up again one
day in the future.... I'm sure there's a
younger generation who wants to
ensure our citizens have the best
they can and I'm sure with an aging
population and with the demands
on healthcare, hospital care is only
going in the opposite direction of the
decision today. I think we will see it
rehash itself at one point in time," he
said.
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