The Rainy River District Social Service Administration Board received a brief letter from Health minister Elizabeth Witmer confirming it has been designated as the land ambulance delivery agent for the area.
DSSAB beat out the Town of Fort Frances, which also had applied to administer the ambulance service.
“We’re up for it,” DSSAB CAO Donna Dittaro said Tuesday. “The board is really well organized. [It is] divided into different committees and every board member is on a committee.
“We already have an ambulance committee,” she noted.
Although the exact details have yet to be released, Dittaro said the first step probably will be to analyze the status of the current ambulance units in terms of administration and equipment quality compared to provincially-mandated standards.
“We have to do a gap analysis to see what we have now and what we have to do to get there,” she explained.
“We felt that as one of the biggest centres, we could provide the service,” Fort Frances Mayor Glenn Witherspoon said of the town’s proposal.
“They [the ministry] wanted total unanimity in the district,” added Mayor Witherspoon, who also sits on DSSAB. “I think they’ll do a good job; in fact, I’m sure they will.”
The land ambulance will be the fourth responsibility handed over to DSSAB, which also handles the Ontario Works and cild care services as well as administration for social housing.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
