Poll
Are you concerned about the proposed changes to the ambulance service?
- Yes (82%, 417 Votes)
- No (18%, 89 Votes)
Total Voters: 506
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As ambulance questions mount: Mayor Hyggen says costs unknown
By Lethbridge Herald on March 26, 2026.
Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen addresses ongoing uncertainty around ambulance service costs and the city’s future EMS agreement.Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
Mayor Blaine Hyggen spoke to media Wednesday to provide an update on the Ground Ambulance Service Agreement with Emergency Health Services – Alberta and said he was heading to Edmonton that afternoon, to speak with the provincial government and Mayors of other municipalities dealing with the same issue.
“I did speak with a couple of them (Mayors) this morning and will have an opportunity to speak with the other mayors, and they might shed some light on a pathway forward on this, as far as what we can take to the province,” said Hyggen.
He said that even though he had a few hours of conversations with city council Tuesday during the meeting, everything is still very new and there is still a lot of unknowns.
“We’re still waiting for information to come from the province, so we can make a better decision on what to do,” said Hyggen. “The toughest part is that we don’t know the dollar figure.”
He says that even though the situation is complex, and it will take some time to get through, he is hopeful that they will receive more information in the next few days.
Hyggen said he knows emergency services are extremely important to our community, and council will be doing everything possible to make sure this is dealt with in a quick manner, so there aren’t any bumps on the road.
“We do have the extension now until the end of May. It does give us some time, because we were concerned that we had to make a decision right away without having all of the details, which is very difficult for council to do,” said Hyggen.
He said he understands the community is frustrated. He is getting calls, emails, and messages regarding the situation, but unfortunately, he does not have any more answers than what has already been shared at this point.
Hyggen said he knows the service of integrated fire and EMS provided to the community is higher level of service, and that comes at a cost. Which it might end up being passed down to the community, depending on what happens with the contract.
“And that’s why the time to be able to have some of these conversations is important. I don’t know how we can have a lot of conversations, even with the whole community in that much time, but it’s something that we need to look at,” said Hyggen.
He said with a budget coming up, they need to make sure they know what the cost is that EHS wants them to match, to know if they need to include that in the budget planning.
When talking about how council felt about having this issue dumped on their laps with such a quick turnaround, Hyggen said it was a little bit heart breaking.
“Anytime you talk about fire, emergency services, policing, anything that’s protecting our community, you want to make sure that that service doesn’t have any bumps along the way,” said Hyggen.
He explained that no matter what, when people call for an ambulance, there will be one arriving. The service will not be interrupted. It is just a matter of finding out who will be taking over.
“If you call, your ambulance is going to be there. It’s not a safety issue that we’re dealing with. We just need to find out who is going to be providing that service,” said Hyggen.
He said the province told them the service they are providing is above the level of that they provide in the rest of the province.
“And if you want to keep that, maybe that’s something that’s in the cost that will be incurred on through taxation, and that’s the only way that you could fund those costs,” said Hyggen.
19-18
How can you make a decision without having all of the relevant information?
I support many things the province is doing, but in this case they are wrong.
Ambulance services vary from region to region, but more importantly our city have found something that works well, better than other centers and the leadership who destroyed our EMS dispatch and now going to further degrade our EMS services by forcing private sector EMS services on us.
One just has to look at how many of the other services in healthcare have been degraded such as long term care facilities, which had little oversight!
I for one am against this and people need to wake up and stand for those services or we will no longer have the high quality service we now have.
Thank you Mayor for standing up for our city!