City looks at integrating emergency services

Integration. The city will be looking at ways to combine fire, paramedic and police services to cut down on waste. File photo

OTTAWA - It’s a frequent sight in the City of Ottawa.

You pass by the scene of what appears to be a major incident, surrounded by several fire trucks, ambulances and police cars, only to find a minor fender bender at the centre.

It’s one of the things the city is hoping to tackle as it embarks on finding ways to integrate emergency response services.

“We wonder if we’re throwing too many resources at (incidents),” said Bay Coun. Mark Taylor, who heads the city’s community and protective services committee. “It’s a double-edged sword, because if you were the one lying on the ground, you’d want all the resources you could possible have, but we have to make sure we have appropriate resources spread throughout the city.”

The community and protective services committee will be hearing updates on the process throughout the year, but the final report with suggestions for integration EMS will come down by the end of next summer.

The process is aimed at “finding efficiencies” – standard government jargon for what often results in cutbacks.

But those who work in emergency services are welcoming the exercise.

Paramedic Chief Anthony DiMonte said he anticipates the process will be very successful, and could even lead to a more frequent schedule of such reviews.

The last time EMS overlap was reviewed was at amalgamation a decade ago, DiMonte said.

The services have been working well since then, but now they need to deal with the reality of leaner budgets, DiMonte said.

“Fundamentally, it’s about economics … . How can we get better bang for our buck?” he said.

That doesn’t necessarily mean layoffs, DiMonte cautioned. If EMS can rethink the way it does things, the departments can rein in growth and accomplish more with the resources they currently have.

“We are emergency services – you can’t be more core than that,” DiMonte said, adding that you won’t see layoffs of firefighters and paramedics. “That said, is there a way that with the resources we have, we can deploy better, and our people get that.”

There is also no intention to combine the three emergency response services into one department, Taylor said.

“No one is talking about merging fire, paramedics and police together into one body,” he said.

Other ideas for efficiency could include making bulk equipment purchases across the three services (such as ensuring all uniforms for paramedics, police and fire are bought in bulk, as well as things like radios).

The chiefs of the city’s emergency services, including Fire Chief John deHooge and Police Chief Vern White, already have a very strong working relationship that extends to personal friendships, DiMonte said.