File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Sending KFR medical response issue to committee is no answer

Mar 7, 2024 | 5:55 AM

ASSUMING COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE recommendations are confirmed when Kamloops City council sits in regular session, taxpayers will be on the hook for a slightly lower increase than originally predicted.

Tuesday was the day to deal with so-called “supplementary” budget items, a wish list generated from City Hall staff and the public. One of the items scratched from the list — technically, shunted off to committee for further discussion — was a Kamloops Fire Rescue proposal for a $1 million allotment to buy a special SUV and hire staff to deal with medical emergencies.

The notion has arisen that the dramatic increase in the number of medical calls answered by KFR is due to drug overdose cases and that, therefore, municipal taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for the service.

Certainly, the increase in overdoses is not imaginary, but it doesn’t reduce the need to respond to other emergencies such as heart attacks or injuries.

Boogie The Bridge

Boogie The Bridge Event Information

Apr 19, 2024

Two and Out

PETERS: Try as he might, Allan Schoenborn will never be forgotten

17h ago

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: Sorry - did you say, 'Take your old guns to the post office?'

23h ago

And what about the question of which level of government should be paying the cost? If the province is paying for ambulance service, shouldn’t it also pay for the backup provided by KFR, which usually arrives at the scene first?

It’s easy to say the provincial government should pay for municipal backup but it’s not reasonable to suggest — as some in the community and on council have done — that the KFR service shouldn’t receive the financial support it needs in the meantime.

Talk of the KFR medical response service being important but something local taxpayers shouldn’t pay for, and it somehow, some way needs to be resolved goes nowhere. The alternative to local funding is that more people may die.

As Coun. Dale Bass said, what’s a life worth? So, yes, lobby the province but let’s stop pontificating about how the KFR shouldn’t be involved.

Cutting out sidewalks and garbage-truck technology doesn’t put anybody’s life on the line; reducing emergency-call capability does. Sending the issue to committee is no answer.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

—

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.