Health Services Minister George Abbott announced $2 million in funding on Aug. 26 for the long-awaited new ambulance station in Revelstoke. “The new station will be a permanent, centrally located base for paramedics to continue providing high-quality emergency health care to patients in Revelstoke and surrounding areas. This is another example of our continued investment in health care in communities across the province and how we are improving emergency care,” said Abbott.

Mayor Mark McKee says he’s happy that the city’s efforts to secure a new building have paid off. “A new ambulance station is a major investment that will enhance emergency health care in our community,” said McKee. “The City of Revelstoke has been working closely with the BC Ambulance Service to find a suitable area to locate a new station. I am thrilled that we were successful.”

The BC Ambulance Service (BCAS) bought the property at 900 Oscar St. from the City of Revelstoke in March after members of the public attended a public hearing and supported the land use designation change.

BCAS chief operating officer Sue Conroy thanked the ambulance crews, who have been working out of temporary accommodations, for their patience. “I’m pleased that paramedics in Revelstoke will have a brand new station from which to respond to emergency calls. I would like to thank the crews for their patience while work was underway to secure construction funding and purchase the land.”

Only limited details on the eventual design of the building are available at this time. The BCAS says the next stage will be to complete planning and design of the station, followed by a request for proposals. The BCAS says the new station will have crew quarters, a kitchen and common area, bathroom and covered ambulance bays.

They estimate that construction will begin in the summer of 2009 and expect the building will be completed by the fall of 2010.

Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald says the announcement is good news, but that it comes far too late, saying the government should have foreseen the problems when they moved paramedics to on call status over two years ago. “If you’re making those sorts of decisions it’s incumbent on you to really sort out how that’s all going to work,” he says. “Really they didn’t move on it quickly enough. They should have thought these things through before they changed the rules and then they should have moved much quicker to find a suitable situation.”

Macdonald says the conditions over the past two years for the crews have been untenable, including living in motels and being forced to shovel and scrape snow

See Ambulance A4

before they could get on the road.

He credits the paramedics, their union, city council and the community for their efforts to both work and push for the new station. “The community needs to work together and fight for things together and when we do that we can be very, very effective,” he said. “Revelstoke certainly understands that.”

Macdonald says the Kamloops call centre that serves the B.C. Interior still has issues, but they’re seeing incremental improvements on a number of them, such as sound quality in the call room. Some problems with the communication system -- which caused it to cut out -- have also been dealt with, he says.

BJ Chute, Director of Public Education with the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. (CUPE 873) echoes Macdonald’s feeling on the announcement. “I know that the paramedics in Revelstoke are happy with the announcement [but] ... it’s unfortunate that it’s taken so much time and effort,” he said. “We need to move quickly on this because the paramedics and the community deserve to have that station built quickly.”

He wants the process from here on in sped up as much as possible. He says he doesn’t have any more details on the plan and he hopes the government and the BCAS work closely with Revelstoke paramedics when they are designing the new facility.

Chute says he’d like to see a three-bay drive through facility as well as a Multi Casualty Incident (MCI) vehicle. The dedicated disaster vehicle deals with large-scale incidents, such as a major crash on the highway. Its primary duty is to house and transport equipment, rather than move patients.

Chute says Revelstoke paramedics deal with unique situations -- he mentions the mountains, the snowfall and the Trans-Canada Highway -- saying the paramedics should be consulted about these needs to ensure the right facility is built. “I just hope that there’s going to be proper consultation with those paramedics to get the station built that they need for their specific needs in Revelstoke,” he said.