A small northern B.C. town doesn’t have ambulance services — and its mayor doesn’t know when it will

The mayor of a small B.C. town on the Alaska border is sounding the alarm because she says her community doesn’t have access to ambulance service — and she doesn’t know when it’s coming back.

Angela Brand Danuser, the mayor of Stewart, B.C., a district of about 500 people, about 515 kilometres northwest of Prince George, said she found out about the service disruption through “unofficial” channels on Monday.

“Everybody in the community is in the dark on when we have ambulance coverage and when we don’t,” she said.

The community’s two paramedics are currently off work but have not been backfilled, according to Brand Danuser.

The nearest ambulances would be dispatched from Hazelton, about a three-hour drive away, she said.

“That’s not acceptable. That’s not going to help you,” Brand Danuser said.

She noted Stewart has an aging population and is a popular tourist destination with a strong mining industry, all demographics that could require an ambulance.

The District of Stewart put out a public safety announcement on social media about the disruption, which it said could go on “for an undetermined period of time.”

Brand Danuser said she heard the ambulance service could be restored on July 15, but that date isn’t official.

There have been some “near misses” as a result of the service disruption, she said.

“There was somebody who had phoned for an ambulance and was waiting and waiting and waiting — and then finally decided to bring the person to the health centre themselves,” she said.

“We have a beautiful health centre with excellent staff, but if you can’t get there … what good is it?”

She said the community’s volunteer firefighter department is neither trained nor insured to drive an ambulance, and the RCMP are in the same boat.

She urged residents to be aware of the service disruption and to create a plan in case of an emergency.

The paramedics’ union said having only two employees regularly available to staff an ambulance 24/7 is a safety concern.

“It’s just not sustainable on any level,” said Ian Tait, communications director for the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. 

“The burnout, the stress, the physical and mental burden that comes with, not being able to disconnect — you always have a pager tied to your hip,” he said.

He noted it’s difficult to backfill rural areas, especially when surrounding communities aren’t necessarily well-staffed either.

Tait advocated for full-time paramedic positions, which he said would make it easier to recruit staff to rural areas, as opposed to the on-call “pager pay” system. 

“We see these challenges throughout British Columbia in rural and remote areas, and quite frankly, in urban areas as well.”

B.C. Emergency Health Services, which runs the ambulance service in B.C., said it is committed to serving the whole province.

“We take the concerns raised by the mayor of Stewart very seriously and are committed to doing everything we can to provide consistent coverage in this area,” media relations manager Bowen Osoko said in an emailed statement.

“Stewart is part of BCEHS’s Travelling Paramedic Program (TPP), which brings paramedics to remote communities to fill open shifts when needed. We are working with the participants in this program and have filled some of the upcoming shifts in Stewart. We continue to work to fill the remaining shifts.”

Brand Danuser, though, said that response only generates more questions.

“They’re not telling us anything we don’t know. … We’d like to know what shifts they’re filling, and when will we have ambulance coverage?”