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Rustbucket ambulance costs $8,300 in one year for repairs

Ambulance 5252 is stationed in Garden River First Nation, which figures it can do a better job running its own local ambulance service than off-reserve managers
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Ambulance 5252 is shown responding to a fire earlier this month on Amber Street in Sault Ste. Marie. Darren Taylor/SooToday

The paint on Ambulance 5252 isn't show-car quality.

But to the casual eye, it doesn't look all that bad, either.

The problem with the Garden River-based emergency vehicle isn't the shiny side.

It's down below, on the underbody.

The nine-year-old ambulance logs a lot of highway mileage and its undercarriage is, well, pretty much a rustbucket.

Last year, District of Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board (DSSMSSAB) asked the province for cash to replace Ambulance 5252.

The funding was denied.

In the year from March of 2016 until this past March, Garden River's over-the-hill ambulance needed $8,300 in repairs to keep it on the road.

And that repair bill is actually very low, because it's based on repair rates charged by City of Sault Ste. Marie mechanics whose work costs less than their counterparts at private-sector garages, DSSMSSAB members were told at a meeting Thursday night.

As of June 1, Ambulance 5252 had logged 138,800 kilometres and 3,780 engine hours.

Mechanics noticed during routine maintenance in 2016 that 5252 was approaching the end of its service life.

"This 2008 ambulance, although having moderate mileage, has much more corrosion on the underbody and components than our city-based ambulances," DSSMSSAB members were advised Thursday night by their chief administrative officer, Mike Nadeau. 

"This has been attributed to highway salting/brine solutions used during the winter season," Nadeau said in a written report.

"Due to the base location, this ambulance utilizes the highway more often to respond to calls and to transport patients to hospital. Despite routine rust prevention treatments, the corrosion affects the wiring harnesses and mechanical components of the undercarriage."

"This will continue to create more repairs and higher maintenance costs until such time as the unit is considered unsafe. The service cannot wait until the unit is deemed mechanically unsafe for use to be replaced. For seamless and operational reasons this must occur prior," Nadeau said.

5252 is one of two ambulances based in Garden River. 

"Those assets are owned by the Ministry of Health, so we're making a business case to secure $121,000 to purchase a new ambulance for that station," Nadeau told Thursday night's meeting.

After last year's rejection, DSSMSSAB is "putting increased pressure on the ministry," he said. "If funding is secured, it will be 100 per cent provincial."

Nadeau expects to receive a response from the province by this fall.

Garden River's ambulance base is located next door to the community's fire hall, where Fire Chief Steve Nolan tells SooToday there are concerns about more than just a rusty ambulance.

Nolan is also critical of ambulance response times and other issues that he believes could be better managed by the First Nation itself.

The 10-year tripartite agreement with the province and DSSMSSAB that created Garden River's ambulance base expires next year, Nolan says, and there are plans to push then for ambulance autonomy.

Garden River's fire department has two EMS (emergency medical services) vehicles, one provided by the Ministry of Health just last month.

But EMS is different from ambulance service.

"We're not paramedics. We try to sustain life," Nolan says.

His first-response vehicles carry oxygen and cardiopulmonary resuscitation equipment, but Garden River's EMS responders don't administer medicine or transfer patients.

"We're seeking to run the [ambulance] base," he told SooToday.

"There's no way that we couldn't manage that facility. Continue the service but let us manage it."

Starting in September, Garden River will host its third 53-week paramedic course.

Ninety-seven per cent of the more than 100 graduates of the two previous local courses have found employment, Nolan said.

About a half-dozen spots in this year's course are still open.

For further information, contact Canadian Career College in North Bay or Chief Nolan at Garden River Fire Department.

Garden River will also host Level 1 and 2 firefighter training in late October.


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David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
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