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Taxpayers will endure the ‘Grand Experiment’ costs
By Lethbridge Herald on April 2, 2026.
Editor,
Amusingly, after the UCP Government decided Lethbridge among other cities would be the pilot program for the Southern Alberta Rehab Facility and funded numerous social services to destroy our downtown, they now want to reduce Ambulance costs? Costs that are directly related to their “build it and they will come” drug facilities experiment?
Recently a senior collapsed outside of Walmart, 911 was called, after 45 minutes an ambulance did not show up, a fire truck did. So where were the ambulances? No doubt attending to their 30th overdose of the day or waiting for an under-funded and under-manned emergency room to take the addict off
their hands. The same applies to the local police, if they pick up an addict in distress, they must sit with that person in emergency until emergency staff take the addict off their hands.
Now the UCP has decided to renegue on the support for demand they created and wanted in our downtown! The UCP and Social Services of Lethbridge were allergic to commuting to a facility I proposed on Highway 509. It was stated over and over again that addicts have been ostracized from their community and their families and what I was proposing was further removal. After all, whom would the addict steal from, when they need their next hit, if they were way out on the 509? Did I have no heart?
Ambulance costs having to come down, is directly related to the total cost of the UCP supporting the social services network of Lethbridge in their experiment! I have always stated if you are willing to throw all the money you have to save an addict, you will! When the government priorities get squeezed and they will begin to backwater on their “Great experiment”! Taxpayers eventually will bare the cost of the “Grand Experiment”!
Dennis Bremner,
Lethbridge
9-8
Part of the problem is the built in inefficiencies. Waiting at the ER in Lethbridge and watching an ambulance drop off a client/ patient can be eye opening. The amount of time to process or watch someone process a patient is ridiculous. Drop off the sick/ injured and be gone I would say.
Another example- recently watched, yes watched a vehicle drive too fast on a slippery corner and contact a curb. Instant flat tire. Not a biggee. However 10 minutes later there was 2 fire trucks, an ambulance and 2 police cars. This should not be necessary. The system needs some kind of inefficiency eliminator. I see the problem though, some do gooder calls in an “accident “without a clue as to the scope of it and the response is similar. And that’s only the start of a situation. Billing, paperwork, analysis- – .
The suggestion that EMTs should simply drop people off at the ER and “be gone,” is idiotic. The number of preventable deaths in Canadian ER’s is already unacceptably high. The practice you suggest would only add to that number.
You describe ER’s as under-manned. Not only is this factually incorrect – the majority of staff in any ER are women – but it smacks of gender politics. How very Woke.
Dennis I haven’t seen much from you in the last year on this platform . . . hope you are well and you have found a way to manage your crippling back issues, hopefully healing it.
I do understand your frustration, but some of your points are off! It is ludicrous to privatize EMS services, who have not fully recovered from the centralization of EMS dispatch, which in my mind should be reversed!
Copying BC in dealing with the drug crisis cost Alberta at least a billion, haven’t tried to calculate it but a least . . . harm reduction was proven as a faiture in BC after its conception in 2003 . . . 23 years of adding multiple other failed policies while ignoring what actually works and that is the treatment and recovery model Alberta has not fully deployed, but just what is active, has proven to be the most effective plan, especially in our city, where we have seen a near 90% reduction in fatal overdoses since 2024!
I do agree, there appears to be a bit of mission creep with non-profits/programs . . . which are under the city guidance/oversight and that are going in the wrong direction . . . and the city is dragging their feet on shutting down the encampments, sleeping rough, and loitering which create 60%-70% of the crime in the areas they are, even though the shelter has plenty of room to house them, but they refuse because it cramps their criminal activities! Millions are being wasted annually . . . just in our city . . .because they continue to allow this group of lawless criminals to break city bylaws by doing so as well as criminal code laws.
Until people stand up and say we have had enough of seeing millions of dollars being blown on a solvable issue and help lower our property taxed . . . nothing will happen . . . too many “what can I do . . . I can nothing” people out there who do not understand that if there is a will, there is a way!
EMS calls are triaged my the 911 dispatchers and I can guarantee fire/EMS are run ragged, and if there were more trained paramedics available to hire . . . in Canada . . . then they would be hired . . . it is a Canada wide shortage!
ER’s across Canada are also short staffed and Alberta, when compared to other provinces, sits in the middle on the list for long wait times!
We are seeing shortages across the workforce because of the aging baby boomers retiring . . . which was forecast 35 years ago as a warning to prepare . . . Canada didn’t listen! We are not unique!
I have one solution for EMS . . . just for the next couple of years, could we not have med techs who double as ambulance drivers, assist paramedics when arriving on scene to prepare patient for transport, then drive the vehicle to the hospital, freeing up the certified paramedics until such time we can get more trained and hired?
I am against privatization and believe there are solutions . . . fire crews often respond to cardio vascular incidents when EMS is tied up and has the proper equipment to begin treatment on their fire units until EMS can arrive! Most of the time fire responds with EMS to assist and bring security by numbers after all of assaults against fire/EMS crews!
Ending the drug crisis, or putting an end to the encampment/sleeping rough and loitering issues on our streets would dramatically reduce the fire/EMS calls as well . . . again, that is a city issue and when they are finally willing to tackle that in a meaningful way, which is possible, then we will free up many resources!
We have just begun to see more movement on our streets downtown as it warms, including some people arriving from out of town with the backpacks and suitcase on the bus, and have walked around checking out the favourite businesses where their friends hung our last year . . . so we are going to see an influx of issues on our streets again . . . as in every year . . . where police, fire/EMS are tied up and wait times for all increase . . . so buckle up!
You are not going to see change until they clean the mess on the streets up! But there has to be a will by leadership in the city, not the province . . . this is a city issue!
Many of the fire/EMS/police are fedup having to deal with these issues year after year and the Alberta government treatment and recovery plan has being overwhelmingly successful . . . we just need police to enforce the laws to end the carnage on our streets!