Town councillor Marni Fedeyko is deeply concerned over the lack of ambulance coverage for Cochrane and is seeking solutions to address an issue that she admits is not an easy fix.

"I've been messaged quite a few times, I would say especially in the past year, that this is an ongoing problem. The stats are not good. I've been given some evidence of logs and things like that that aren't necessarily public information and concerns from our boots-on-the-ground members that we have a real issue here."

She says some steps could be taken by the municipality, but really it is a problem that should be addressed by the province.

"I think the problem is none of us know how to solve it. There are always two sides to the story."

She says increasing the level of care provided by Cochrane Fire Services members creates additional costs to ratepayers and changes its hiring practice. If taken to Alberta Health Services, she questions if the concern would be addressed.

"It's not really a town problem because when dealing with it at a municipal level we all know what that means. Higher taxes, more money and it's something I don't think is going to be supported by residents."

"But if we push it towards AHS, they won't want to deal with it as a one-off. If it's me taking this message to (Health minister) Shandro, you might as well throw it out. It means nothing."

She knows first responders, even the ones frustrated and stressed, won't speak out because they're afraid for their jobs. 

"I remember the first year that I was elected, an EMS worker approached me and said between the amount of hours that they work and just the nonsupport of Alberta Health Services for their mental well-being and their physical well-being, they end up losing more people than they're gaining. That's a scary statistic. I think we're already seeing that within health care in general, especially in Cochrane."

So, she faces a dilemma.

"How do we take that next step? I don't think dealing with it at a municipal level is probably our best option right now, but God-forbidden if that's our only option, then I think we have to be open to what that discussion looks like because I don't know if we're going to get anywhere with AHS, certainly not now and certainly not with who's at the helm of our province."

She says keeping the issue in the public eye is important.

"Keep discussing it, keep talking about it, and eventually somebody's going to look at it. Maybe that's the approach. I'm not sure."

She hasn't ruled out the idea of taking the issue beyond Cochrane limits and creating a provincewide petition.

Last Friday, she let three area MLAs know Cochrane was once again left without ambulance coverage. 

She contacted MLAs Peter Guthrie, Miranda Rosin, and Angela Pitt. Of those, only Guthrie responded.

"To my knowledge, this is a false assertion that may have more political intent than truth," Guthrie wrote in response.

He did express a willingness to review any accurate source material regarding the claim.

She found the answer concerning.

"This had nothing to do with Twitter. This had to do with members texting me to tell me there are no ambulances in town again, and they're frustrated with it. So, we need to be addressing it at that level. But if the provincial people around us aren't even seeing this as a problem, we've got some bigger problems, I think, and I don't even know where to start."

Data collected by the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA) has confirmed multiple times we've been left without ambulance coverage. That data continues to be collected, and HSAA president Mike Parker says the situation hasn't improved in Cochrane, or in the Calgary region.

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