Rhonda LeRiche, Chelsea Hulan, Dean LeRiche and Kirby Mauger wave at passing cars while holding a demonstration outside the LeGrow Health Centre last Sunday. The staff of private ambulance services across the province have been without a new contract since May 2008. Natalie Musseau photo

Editor's note: Private ambulance operators reached a tentative deal with the province after this article was published.

Ambulance staff across the province could be seen on picket lines early last week as they protested delays in forming a new contract between private ambulance operators and the province.

While taking their job action, medical responders and paramedics were only supplying enough staff to respond to emergencies. Routine ambulance jobs such as medical transfers were not being carried out.

Ambulance staff working under the province's privately run ambulance services are demanding more pay. Their bosses, the owners of private ambulance services, say the provincial government is not paying enough to make their businesses profitable and pay their staff a fair wage. The government says it is up to those business owners to make their business profitable.

Steve Mackenzie, owner of Mackenzie's Ambulance Service in Port aux Basques, said the action taken by medical responders across the province last week was done of their own accord through word of mouth. The staff are not unionized and do not have an official organization separate from operators such as Mr. Mackenzie.

He said he does support the staff in their job action, but added their demands are different from his.

"One of my staff just came in and had a list of demands - it's far more reaching that what we're seeking," he said, referring to the group of business owners negotiating with the province.

Negotiations with the province are being conducted by the Ambulance Operators Executive Board, a board that represents the owners of private ambulance services across the province. Mr. Mackenzie is vice president of the board. Bob Patten of Corner Brook is the chair.

He said his staff felt they had no choice but to take action after waiting over a year for a new contract to be negotiated. They are waiting on pay raises that may or may not be coming based on the new contract private operators hope to negotiate with the province.

The contract between private ambulance operators and the province was open to negotiations as of May 1, 2008. Operators have continued operating under the terms of that contract, according to Tom Marshall, provincial minister of finance.

A group of 22 community-based ambulance services in the smallest regions negotiated a contract on Wednesday evening. Many small, remote communities have volunteer ambulance services operated by municipal governments or community groups such as Lions clubs.

Private ambulance staff agreed to go back to work last Tuesday after the province and the operators agreed to go back to the negotiating table.

Minister Marshall said the workers went back on the job and negotiators came back to the table because, as he understood it, the private operators were in breech of their previous contract by not providing full services.

He said he is glad to see both sides back at the table negotiating the contract.

"I'm a believer in talking. We're prepared to have discussions because you can't have an agreement if you're not talking," he said.

Sticking points

Mr. Mackenzie said there are two sticking points in the negotiation.

One is how the province wants to pay operators for services received.

Minister Marshall said the province pays private ambulance operators a fair fee for services, and it is up to them how they pay their employees.

"The government has offered a 35 per cent increase - that is a generous offer in our view," said Minster Marshall.

Mr. Mackenzie said that offer isn't as generous as it looks because it is based on the number of paramedics hired, to the exclusion of all other staff.

He said the 35 per cent increase would not account for other staff such as mechanics, office staff and medical responders who are not trained paramedics. It would also not account for costs such as ambulance and equipment upgrades.

Private ambulance operators have said the current ambulance service is two-tiered, with the province providing competitive pay and benefits to provincially managed ambulance services which are run out of large medical centres and hospitals, while paying much less to private ambulance operators who mainly operate in rural areas.

Mr. Mackenzie said he can't keep staff when there are jobs available in larger centres such as St. John's and Corner Brook paying upwards of $70,000 per year for paramedics. He is also losing workers to jobs in other provinces.

He said his staff's quality of life is suffering greatly because they are either working or on call for 100 or more hours per week. He said when on call, staff have to be near a phone, severely limiting what they can do in their free time.

The other sticking point is a termination clause, which would allow the province to terminate services without compensation to private service owners at the end of the next contract.

Mr. Mackenzie thinks that clause may be there so the province could bring in a single, province-wide service rather than a collection of small private operators, as has been done in many other provinces such as Nova Scotia.

While he has no problem with a system overhaul, he said it would not be fair to operators such as himself who have invested millions over the years into their business to be suddenly terminated without compensation.

"I've got millions of dollars tied up in this, plus this is my livelihood. There has to be compensation," he said. "Who's going to pay my bills at the end of the day?"

Minister Marshall doesn't see it that way. He said the government hires private operators to do all sorts of tasks, including paving roads, busing students to school. He said no other private business demands that the province buy them out when the job is done.

"A businessman could not expect that because they perform a contract for the government for a period of time that they automatically have the right to that contract in perpetuity," said the minister. "They would recognize that the contract would come to an end at some time and they would plan accordingly in their negotiations."

Minister Marshall said the termination clause has always been in contracts between the province and private ambulance operators. He added that province is not planning to terminate any contracts at this time. He said his priority is to negotiate a contract with the private operators.

Failing that, the province would look at whatever means necessary to continue providing ambulance service to the province.

reporter@gulfnews.ca