This year’s provincial budget includes a three-year funding assistance plan for three of Ontario’s regional ambulance services. But Prescott-Russell’s ambulance program is not on that exclusive list.
“Prescott-Russell was excluded in that,” said Marc-André Périard, emergency services director, in a brief verbal report to the United Counties of Prescott-Russell council (UCPR) during its May 12 session.
The topic came up during discussion on the UCPR delegations list for the upcoming Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) virtual conference.
Russell Township Mayor Pierre Leroux noted that last year, when he was warden, the UCPR sent a letter to the provincial government asking about help dealing with the ambulance service’s costs. That includes the outstanding $1 million debt that the City of Ottawa owes for using UCPR ambulances to deal with some of its emergency calls. The UCPR has received no response to its query.
The eight mayors on UCPR council agreed to add ambulance funding to its list of delegation issues for this year’s AMO conference.
