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Vicktor, Adamson call for Hope and area paramedic funding

Both have noticed a lack of paramedics in the region.
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Both Mayor Wilfried Vicktor and Fraser Valley Regional District Area B director Dennis Adamson say the have noticed a lack of paramedics in the region.(Contributed photo)

There’s a lack of paramedics in Hope within the Fraser Valley Regional District, according to Mayor Wilfried Vicktor.

Vicktor said he will raise this issue up at the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) conference on Sept. 25-29 in Vancouver.

“Through talking to folks who wanted to stay off the record from the region, I’ve had feedback from a couple of folks involved in the system [stating] that there is a significant problem with paramedic services within the FVRD,” said Vicktor. “They just don’t have enough people to service their needs.”

Asked how Hope is doing, Vicktor said “same as other communities.”

“We’re just sometimes very short, it’s very alarming,” said Vicktor.

Vicktor said nothing catastrophic has happened yet which has resulted in people not receiving service, although he warns that it could happen.

“Because you take a look at … the forest fires for instance, some resources are drawn out of town for that,” said Vicktor. “If there’s a small string of catastrophic events, are we equipped to deal with that from a paramedic point of view? I’d say no.”

FVRD Area B director Dennis Adamson agrees. He has heard from several paramedics about this problem.

“Sometimes they leave the area on a call and there’s nobody covering the area. It’s definitely underfunded,” said Adamson. “Sometimes an ambulance is covering Hope to Boston Bar. They sit in Yale waiting to see which way to go.

“One has left to take somebody down, and they leave one to cover.”

He hopes that they get increased funding.

“The Liberal government did not put enough money into that service,” said Adamson. “I would hope that the new government looks at it and say ‘Yes, we’ve got to fund this, in fact, we got to put more into this.’ ”

Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart said she has not heard about this issue. She will speak to District council at the UBCM conference and will hear any issues presented to her.

“I’ll be very interested to hear what their views are and how we can accommodate that,” said Tegart.