Warden of Hastings County, Rodney Cooney.(Photo: Quinte News)
Hastings County council is joining the fight against a provincial government pilot project that would increase firefighter response to medical calls.
The province is proposing to fund two pilot projects to enable firefighters, certified as paramedics, to treat patients while on duty with a fire department.
Warden Rodney Cooney, who is also Mayor of Stirling-Rawdon, told council it would mean his municipality hiring four extra firefighters to cover the shifts.
He says that’s why Hastings County, Belleville, Quinte West and Prince Edward County all joined their paramedic services together.
The province is looking for two “willing” municipalities to undertake the pilot projects.
Cooney says he doesn’t think “any municipality in the entire Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus will participate in such a pilot project.”
At its meeting Thursday, Hastings County council called on the province to make sure “unwilling municipalities could not be forced” through an arbitration process, to have a fire-medic program.
A copy of the resolution will be sent to Premier Kathleen Wynne and other provincial officials.
