Transcript from the Presentation of a Petition on behalf of Emergency Medical Responders, Primary Care Paramedics and Emergency Medical Dispatchers to the House of Assembly by MHA David Brazil and the favourable response by the Minister of Health.
TRANSCRIPT Follows
MR. BRAZIL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
These are the reasons for this petition: Everyday emergency medical professionals, emergency medical responders, primary care paramedics and emergency medical dispatchers provide vital medical emergency and transition services to the residents of Newfoundland and Labrador. Their duties are essential for delivery of medical service in all regions of our province, especially at times of serious health crisis when residents need access to immediate medical attention and/or transport to acute care facilities for, often, life-saving medical treatments.
While the importance of these medical professionals cannot be [overstated], currently in our province, they are not automatically deemed as essential services, meaning no provision exists for a continuation of their services if an employee or an employer service disruption occurs.
In other Canadian jurisdictions, these same medical professionals are deemed as essential services in labour relations legislation, ensuring service is never interrupted and residents always have access to emergency road ambulance in Newfoundland and Labrador, protection does no[t] exist.
Therefore we, the petitioners, petition the House of Assembly as follows: We, the undersigned, call upon the House of Assembly to urge the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to immediately start the process for road ambulance health care professionals to be deemed as essential services under labour relations legislation, ensuring no interruption in emergency med[ical] services across our province under any circumstances, that an appropriate arbitration process be introduced that ensures a resolution mechanism formally exists and any interruption in this vital service is avoided.
Mr. Speaker, this is about ensuring that we have available health service particularly when it’s at the emergency level. Nothing more than our first responders, particularly when we’re looking at the ambulance services that have to be providing the service for those individuals.
We all know the valued service that firefighters do, on a professional level and a paid level but we also realize the valued service, the immediate impact service that ambulance drivers have and what they do then to ensure the stability of the injured individual and they’re stabilizing until they get to one of our primary care facilities for health interventions.
Mr. Speaker, we want to ensure, because it is a labour market. So we have employers that may have issues around funding and services with their employees, we have employees that may have issues around the services and the provided wages and other issues that they may have with their employer. Both, have the ability and have a right, under our labour laws, they have a right as it stands right now, to either lock out their employees or a union has a right and the employees have a right to either work-to-rule or go on strike.
As we know a number of our paramedics and our emergency response professionals are part of a particular union in Newfoundland and Labrador so they have collective agreements. If they feel that collective agreement is being violated they have a right to exercise their rights and privileges. If the employer has that issue with their employees they have a right to stop it.
We ask, Mr. Speaker, that this be taken seriously and that essential services be brought forward for debate in this House.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
MR. HAGGIE: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
The Member opposite brings up a very important point. Our paramedics in this province to perform incredibly valued work and valuable work. They actually fall into three broad groups, one of whom are effectively public sector employees within a collective arrangement. My recollection is that there is an essential worker’s agreement with that group.
The other two, one is volunteer and they are community groups and the others are employees of private companies some of which are unionized and some of which are not. Certainly from my point of view, in our discussions with ambulance operators on a go-forward basis this is something we would very concerned about factoring in and I welcome the petition from the Member opposite.
Thank You