OFFICE OF THE MAYOR TOWN OF PEACE RIVER May 25, 2017 File: 35/300 Ms. Linda Hughes / Dr. Verna Yiu AHS Board Chair / AHS president and CEO Alberta Health Services Board 14th Floor, North Tower, 7th Street Plaza 10030-107 Street NW Edmonton, AB T5J 3E4 Dear Ms. Hughes and Dr. Yiu: Re: Air Ambulance Contract for Peace River I received your rather abrupt letter dated May 17, 2017. Certainly the juxtaposition of outright dismissing our request to speak before the AHS Board and in the next paragraph speaking of having a valued partnership with us was jarring, to say the least. I trust you will re-consider our request. Partners have conversations, even if those conversations are sometimes hard and difficult. The reality of the situation is you have manufactured two crises for us to deal with, and we need your co-operation now, not in the future, to deal with them. The crises are: 1. Your staff are recommending an air ambulance provider to serve our airport that does not have the operating infrastructure to safely land or depart from our airport. We have no serviced lots at this time to sell or lease the proponent. We have three unserviced lots – i.e. they have no power, no water, no sewer, and, probably most importantly, no taxiway to them. Furthermore, these lots have two other companies on a waiting list ahead of AHS’ recommended proponent. 2. Assuming, we can resolve the above satisfactorily, all indications are that AHS’ recommended proponent will be in 3-6 months’ time our airport’s only fixed-wing client of note. To pay for the capital maintenance of the airport, we anticipate we will have to charge fees of $1285 per landing, i.e. about $2 million a year. These landing fees are generally passed on by the air ambulance provider directly to AHS. Even if the provincial public purse can absorb these additional costs, it will, unfortunately, not staunch expected job losses of 50 or more direct jobs. And, as we all know the best correlation with health and wellness is being gainfully employed. I trust that you will re-consider our request to address the AHS Board. This may very well be an uncomfortable conversation, but it is one that we as partners have to have. Thomas Tarpey Town Administration Office Mayor, Town of Peace River P.O. Box 6600, 9911-100 Street Phone: (780) 625-5393 (c) /(780) 624-7070 (w) Peace River, AB T8S 1S4 Email: [email protected] Phone: (780) 624-2574 Fax: (780) 624-4664 Website: www.peaceriver.ca General Email: [email protected] Sincerely, Thomas Tarpey Mayor cc. Premier Rachel Notley Honorable Robert Wanner, Speaker of the Alberta Legislature Honorable Debbie Jabbour, Deputy Speaker Honorable Sarah Hoffman, Minister of Health Honorable Shaye Anderson, Minister of Municipal Affairs Honorable Brian Mason, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Honorable Marg McCuaig-Boyd, Minister of Energy Honorable Shannon Phillips, Minister of Environment and Parks Drew Barnes, MLA Cypress -- Medicine Hat Dr. Richard Starke, MLA Vermilion -- Lloydminster Jitendra Prasad, Chief Program Officer, Contracting Services, AHS Deb Gordon, Executive Lead, Emergency Management Services, AHS Gordon Bates, Executive Director, Alberta Air Ambulance, AHS Darren Sandbeck, Chief Paramedic, AHS Town of Peace River Council Town of Grimshaw County of Northern Lights Municipal District of Peace No. 135 Northern Sunrise County Village of Berwyn OFFICE OF THE MAYOR Page 2 of 2 Town of Peace River .