The people of Emo are concerned about recent announcements from the District of Rainy River Services board, and they filled the Emo-La Vallee arena on Monday to have their displeasure noted.
At a special meeting of Emo town council held at the arena on Monday, September 16, 2024, dozens of people joined in-person to hear a deputation from District of Rainy River Services Board CAO Charene Gillies. Gillies’ presence was requested at the meeting to discuss the board’s announced decision to temporarily shuffle ambulance services from the Emo Ambulance Station to both the Rainy River and Fort Frances bases in light of significant staff shortages in the district.
Ahead of the meeting’s official start at 10:00 a.m., dozens of people lined up down the stairs to the arena’s second floor in order to sign the attendance sheet, and extra chairs were pulled out of storage to accommodate more people.
Following the opening of the meeting, Emo council first heard from local resident Renée Martin-Brown, who noted that she was speaking to council on behalf of herself and a group of likeminded, concerned residents of Emo and the surrounding area.
“We are very strongly opposed to the announcement from the District of Rainy River Services Board that the decision has been made to temporarily close the Emo Ambulance Service, and we have many important questions for council and DRRSB regarding the closure,” Martin-Brown said.
In her letter, Martin-Brown raised concerns surrounding the DRRSB’s decision at its July 18, 2024, meeting, where the decision to temporarily relocate services from the base was passed. She asked what other alternative options and solutions were presented aside from the closure, as well as what additional measures the DRRSB has taken to incentivize recruitment into their paramedicine program in the District. Martin-Brown also noted that at the time of the vote, several members of the DRRSB board, which is made up of representatives from communities within the Rainy River District, were not present. According to the DRRSB’s official meeting minutes, the representatives from Morley (Telford Advent), Chapple (James Gibson), Alberton (Mike Ford) and LaVallee (Brendan Hyatt) were listed under the meeting’s Regrets and thus were not part of the vote. Board member Wade Desserre, representative for Rainy River West called for a recorded vote, and the motion was carried with board member Lisa Teeple, representative for Emo, as the sole dissenting voice.
Concerned residents packed the auditorium of the Emo-La Vallee Arena on Monday morning to hear from Charene Gillies, CAO of the District of Rainy River Ser-vices Board, about the recent decision to temporarily relocate emergency paramedicine services from the Emo ambulance base in efforts to maintain service across the district in light of significant staffing shortages. – Ken Kellar photo
Martin-Brown asked Emo council within her letter to call for a rescinding of the vote due to the absent members, as well as what she called “vital errors” in the descriptions used within the motion, particularly that it calls for the Community Paramedic program to be relocated to the Emo Ambulance Base, rather than the Community Paramedicine Program.
“There is a distinct difference between providing paramedicine support and providing paramedic care,” Martin-Brown said.
“Therefore, the information given on the day of the vote was either false or not verified, and that alone, should be significant enough to warrant the annulment of the vote.”
Emo, and the remainder of the Rainy River District, are not alone in experiencing a shortage of paramedics and other health care related professionals, which Martin-Brown acknowledges in her letter. However, she points out the geographical distance within the district as a key distinction within the region, and said the removal of the paramedic base from Emo, a “central location” would have a knock-on effect for other communities in the district.
“Removing a lifeline of emergency services from the central location of Emo, will also create further disruptions for the paramedics working out of Fort Frances and directly impacts the residents of Fort Frances as well,” she said.
“What happens when one ambulance is 40km up highway 502 to Dryden, and the other Fort Frances ambulance is responding to a call in Northwest Bay? People in Fort Frances are now waiting for an ambulance to arrive from Rainy River which is over 90km one way.”
Concluding her letter, Martin-Brown once more acknowledged that staffing numbers are a critical issue not only for the region, but the remainder of the province, but called on Emo council, DRRSB and the public to work together to find an alternative solution that would see the Emo ambulance base remain open in the future. Martin-Brown’s reading was met with a standing ovation and multiple cheers from the audience.
As DRRSB CAO Charene Gillies took the podium to present her delegation, she painted a picture of a system being held aloft by dedicated professionals, but still stressed to the point of breaking by low paramedic numbers, significant overtime, and no quick answers in sight.
“We are currently operating with approximately 30 percent fewer paramedics than our district requires,” Gillies said.
“To put it into perspective, we need a minimum of 46 full time paramedics to maintain the current core base model across the district. As of today, we have approximately 32 full time equivalents available. Each of our four bases requires approximately 10 full time equivalent paramedics to operate 24 hours a day. There’s a gap between what we have and what we need.”
Gillies noted that in exit interviews with departing paramedics, two key factors that have been contributing to losing local paramedics have been the working conditions, and “the stress of constantly being asked to work excessive overtime.”
“Action to improve working conditions and to address the gap between what we have and what we need is required, and it is required now,” she said.
“Without action, we risk losing more of our highly trained staff. The gap will become worse, and that’s a situation that we cannot afford.”
Gillies then noted that in July 2024, the DRRSB made the “difficult decision” to begin addressing the challenges facing paramedicine in the district. After considering myriad options, Gillies said the board decided that in order to provide the “highest possible service levels for District residents,” they would need to make changes to how some of those services are delivered, which included the temporary relocation of paramedic resources out of the Emo base to Rainy River and Fort Frances.
“This is not a decision the board or myself or Joshua [Collins, chief of DRRSB paramedic services] took lightly, but with the current staffing levels, it is necessary to ensure that we can continue to provide safe and effective emergency services across the whole of the district, including Emo,” she said.
“I know this may be concerning for Emo residents, and I want to assure you that this is considered a temporary measure. The intent is to restore delivering services from the base in Emo as staffing levels allow.”
In order to restore regular functioning to the working to address both the immediate crisis and to find long-term solutions that are “sustainable.” Among these measures is continuing to authorize overtime for working paramedics without forcing them to take it, in order to avoid potential burnout, participating in job fairs, offering recruitment incentives, as well as investigating new recruitment and retention incentives which include mileage and housing allowances. Gillies noted they also met with Ontario Minister of Health Sylvia Jones in August to “request specific support for rural and remote paramedic services” like DRRSB’s.
“In closing, I want to emphasize that this decision, while difficult, was made in the best interest of paramedics and of our district communities,” Gillies said.
“The goal is not just to address today’s crisis, but to build a sustainable future where our paramedic services can thrive and our district communities can rely on consistent and high quality care. Your support is crucial as we navigate this difficult period, and I thank you for your time and consideration.”
Following Gillies’ deputation, Emo mayor Harold McQuaker asked if Gillies would commit to an open public meeting in Emo to take questions from the concerned members of the public. Gillies said it was not a decision she was able to make without board approval, and that she would take the request to them at their meeting, which she said will be held this week.
Through answering questions posed by the mayor and other council members, Gillies stressed that every option to keep the system running the way it has been this far up and running has been and is being considered, such as using different partners within the district to help in the delivery of services as well as the possible consequences that could result after the move is made, from losing staff who have built their lives in Emo if they are forced to move elsewhere. Gillies also acknowledged that should the district continue to lose paramedics, the situation could become much more dire for everyone who lives here. The message at the end of the day was that at this time, the DRRSB believes this current course of action is the only way to ensure the entire district still has adequate ambulance coverage while other feasible alternatives and solutions to the problem are sought out.
“We’re continuing to look at all options,” Gillies said.
“This is an evolving issue, and we have a number of factors that we have to balance. We have to balance ministry requirements. We have to balance availability of staff, availability of cars, and definitely response time is something that we consider, but as you can imagine, it’s a very complex service in terms of service delivery, and all factors are being considered.”
It was clear, however, that DRRSB’s answer did not satisfy everyone.
“I don’t know how you can fix something that’s working well,” McQuaker said.
