Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Losing The Ambulance

The North End is losing ambulance service next year. As of January, 2012, we will no longer have ambulances dispatched from the Redwood Firestation.
We lost our Police Station on Main Street already. Our closest Police Station is now on Hartford Avenue.
I wonder how long it will be before the fire station leaves the neighbourhood as well.
We have lost all of our banks.
We have lost most of our gas stations. The closest gas station on Main Street is the Shell down by Leila. Other than that, you would have to go onto Salter Street and gas up at the Shell on Mountain or the Petro Can or Esso at Selkirk.
We have pawn shops, money marts, dollar stores and social service agencies.
In the great new plan for the future of Winnipeg, is this how City Hall sees it? Is everything proceeding according to plan?
I understand the fire trucks being dispatched from Redwood Street are staffed with first responders. They are generally at a call before the ambulance arrives anyway. And not all calls require transport to a hospital. But who decided the North End shouldn't have an ambulance in house. Does the North End not make use of ambulances enough to justify having them on hand? Or are we rethinking who needs the ambulances quicker. Maybe North Enders don't need to get to the hospital as fast as residents of other neighbourhoods. Maybe those closer to Church Ave and Sheppard St pay more taxes and warrant the ambulance dispatching from their neck of the woods.
Are all the emergency services relocating to the suburbs? How about the non-emergency services? Will we lose other city services as time goes on?
I don't get it. Why pull the ambulance dispatch from the North End? Answer me that Mayor Katz.

7 comments:

  1. I have to say that I gavea the current administration at city hall the benefit of the doubt for the last couple of years, but now, that is definately done. After Remembrance Day( how was your weekend in the sun, Sam), the transit hike and now this. I can't wait until the next civic election. Out and good riddance to you, SAM.

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  2. perhaps the north end has too many non paying customers

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  3. It might just be the pull of the suburbs, like how my area lost one of two bus routes because a new development (Sage Creek) pulled it away. Same number of routes but more area to service.

    I assume or hope that they did some analysis of response times and so on before making the decision, but you never know.

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  4. Isn't there a Mohawk gas station on Redwood and Salter? And didn't the ACU just open up a branch in the NE? Sure, Tom Simms and his group took over the BOD of the ACU and virtually forced them to open up there, but how about the Holy Spirit Credit Union on Selkirk? Screw the banks, join a credit union. If they've abandoned you, dump them. Fill up at the Mohawk, but your baking on Selkirk, your fish on Dufferin. Buy local, or they'll leave too.

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  5. There are plenty of gas stations in the North End. Redwood and Arlington there is a Mohawk , the Petro and Esso near Salter and Selkirk, the Shell at Mountain and Salter....there are more gas stations within a 5 minute drive in the north end compared to where I live in St.James !
    Most ambulances are not in the station anyway, they are almost always on the road.

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  6. mohawk jefferson/main 24 hrs,husky flora/salter 24 hrs/husky selkirk/mcphillips 24 hrs.,shell mountain/salter 24 hrs...more than 2

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