EDMONTON — The UCP are halting the current procurement for integrated fire and Emergency Health Services operators in Alberta as the Government of Alberta and select municipalities work to align contract negotiations with a deliberate and effective path. "We must deliver emergency health services in a consistent, fiscally responsible and patient‑focused way — and we need to get this right," wrote Minister of Hospital and Surgical Health Services Adriana LaGrange in an X post on Monday. LaGrange said she directed EHS to stop the current procurement strategy as the body works to negotiate new ground ambulance services contracts before the current agreements used across Alberta expire in September. .The integrated operator procurement applied to seven municipalities, including Red Deer and Lethbridge, who choose to join services by contracting firefighters who are also trained paramedics. Former Hospital and Surgical Health Services Minister Matt Jones said those municipalities would be forced to either abandon the joint services, negotiate contracts within the budgeted amount, or pay the difference between the allotment and the actual cost. LaGrange claims her announcement looks to give the local governments and EHS more freedom to negotiate and chart a better path forward. "EHS Alberta will work with these communities to design a strategy that supports them and brings costs in line with provincially delivered EHS services by 2028-29," LaGrange wrote. "This gives communities the time and support needed to plan, adapt and build sustainable services while ensuring emergency health services are always there when Albertans need them most.".Monday is the second EHS-related move LaGrange has abandoned since she took the position in May, after spending time in primary and preventive health services. The UCP announced that EHS-Alberta would be rebranding to ALTA Paramedic Health in May, before LaGrange scrapped the move after the ministry supposedly spent less then $25,000 on developing launch prototypes. "I've heard questions from Albertans and front-line workers about the recent Emergency Health Services rebranding, and I share their concerns," LaGrange wrote on June 10.
