Town councillor Alex Reed is not about to ease off on his push for the town to receive more provincial money for services provided to EMS by Cochrane Fire Services and he's starting to get feedback.

Since council approved adding four full-time firefighters to the Cochrane Fire Services, Reed has been determined to get answers on what he sees as a lack of significant provincial funding provided to the town in its role as a Medical First Response Agency. He contends hiring of the firefighters at a cost of about $500,000 was largely done to subsidize the provincial government's ambulance service.

The town does receive an annual contribution of $3,000 per year as a Medical First Response Agency (MFRA), which is to be used for equipment and training, it was revealed to council. It has also been confirmed the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association has sent a resolution to Health minister Sarah Hoffman on the topic that originated from the City of Wetaskiwin and was adopted as a resolution by the AUMA. The city requested the province provide direct financial compensation on a full recovery-cost basis to all Alberta Medical First Response agencies.

The AUMA says it is awaiting a response from Hoffman and it will be reviewed by the AUMA's safe and healthy communities committee to determine what steps, if any, should follow.

Reed believes that's not good enough and wants council to adopt it as a priority item at their upcoming Feb. 9 strategic planning session.

"I appreciate that information and we should continue in that vein, but I think individually Cochrane should meet with that appropriate ministry and we should be pointing out they are off-loading these costs to our community or we should push to have a review about the decision of the realignment of services. When the ambulances are called to the city, we have no services and the staff that is there is overworked, so I think there's a great inequity and I think it's a real problem."

The determined councillor has brought the concern to the attention of both the AUMA and to Banff-Cochrane MLA Cam Westhead and has asked for assistance on the issue.

"Emergency medical services have been an ongoing concern for many AUMA members and we have been advocating on a number of issues related to this topic for the past few years," wrote back Kelly Santarossa, AUMA senior policy analyst, "so I'm sorry, but not surprised to hear about your challenges in Cochrane."

Westhead has asked for assistance from the health ministry to help address Reed's concerns and will share further information once it's available.

"This offloading of these costs and services is both unfair and unacceptable. How can we work together to address this challenge?" he asked Westhead.

Further details on the issue might come to light when council receives the annual reports of both the fire service and Alberta Health Services on Mar. 26. If not clarity, certain it will provide an opportunity for Reed to gather more fuel to light his initiative.

"This will be a multi-year project in terms of being able to first catch the ear of the provincial government, recognizing there may be a change of government in the meantime.".

"I don't think we should take our foot off the pedal on this one."