Firefighters, province play ping-pong with college costs

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This article was published 10/05/2017 (3103 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province has no responsibility for any deal the city signed with firefighters to cover their fees in the proposed college of paramedicine, Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said Wednesday.

“I wasn’t involved in city negotiations. It would be privy to them, not to the province,” Goertzen said in an interview.

United Firefighters of Winnipeg president Alex Forrest said Wednesday establishing self-regulation for paramedics will cost the province more than $1 million a year and cost rural paramedics more than one per cent of their frozen wages.

Forrest said paramedics will have to pay up to $600 a year in fees under the proposal, but his members’ new collective bargaining agreement requires the city to cover the fees. The city would then pass on that cost to the province under their funding agreement for emergency medical services, Forrest said.

“Especially with all the austerity measures, it doesn’t make sense to have additional bureaucracy,” Forrest said. “It will be paid by the province and the city. We will be the only paramedics in the province having our costs covered.

“We believe it will cost the province and the city upwards of $1 million” each year, he said.

That won’t be happening, Goertzen said. If the city agreed to cover fees, that’s the city’s responsibility to cover them. He pointed out there have been no fees set and the college hasn’t been established.

City officials could not be reached Wednesday.

Forrest said Goertzen shouldn’t be creating self-regulation for paramedics by adding another level of bureaucracy during government austerity.

Goertzen released a report Wednesday from consultant Reg Toews on preferred options for creating a college of paramedicine.

“We ran on it, we’re committed to it, it was in our throne speech,” Goertzen said. Paramedics are professionals — they should be treated that way.”

Forrest predicted city ambulance paramedics will seek the same benefit as firefighters, further driving up costs. Other college fees, such as training and liability insurance, will be paid by the firefighters’ employer, he said.

Meanwhile, rural paramedics will have their wages frozen under the province’s wage-control legislation while digging into their own pockets for the new fees, Forrest said. The fees will amount to more than one per cent of a year’s pay, he said.

With new fees and frozen wages, effectively, “They’re going to be reducing their wages. This is a service that should be provided by the province,” Forrest said.

Eric Glass, administrative director of the Paramedics Association of Manitoba, said his members are pleased with the Toews report and would leave fees up to unions.

“If I want to be a paramedic, I have a responsibility to pay the fees associated with my licence,” Glass said.

Glass said Toews’ recommendation to establish a transition council to bring in the college will help the process and applauded the report’s urging that the association not simply become the college — other stakeholders didn’t want that, he said.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union welcomed the Toews report and said it expects the employer to cover college fees for rural paramedics.

“The MGEU has long supported self-regulation and the establishment of an independent college of paramedicine. This will ensure that the paramedics who arrive in a medical emergency have the skills and experience to save your life,” the MGEU said in a statement.

“There are a number of collective agreements that require the employer to cover professional fees.

“Although we do not currently have such provisions in collective agreements for our paramedics, we believe all paramedics should be treated fairly in the province. This is an issue that can be addressed when we go back to the bargaining table,” the union said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca