E-mail Premier Ernie Eves: Protect emergency health services.

Send the following e-mail to Premier Ernie Eves at webprem@gov.on.ca (click on this link and cut-and-paste the text below into your email message.  Make sure and add your name, date and work location)

Dear Premier Eves,

Ambulance dispatchers handle over 1.4million emergency calls a year in Ontario. We direct 850 ambulances, 200 emergency vehicles and over 5,500 paramedics. The province runs 12 CACCs and 100 per cent funds a further eight CACCs, including Toronto’s. The provincial CACCs are in crisis. Only 30 per cent of new hires are staying! A government-commissioned report recommended increasing wages “to reflect the current market and the complexity of dispatcher functions.” Your government pays Toronto dispatchers 22 per cent more than provincial dispatchers. Toronto dispatchers each handle 4,200 emergency calls per year. Provincial dispatchers each handle up to 5,800 calls a year or more. Fix the staffing crisis. Sit down with OPSEU as soon as possible and negotiate wage parity so we recruit and retain dispatchers to help save lives. Our emergency health services and public safety depend up on it.

Signed by __________________________ (name of dispatcher).

From the __________________________ Central Ambulance Communications Centre.

Date: _____________________.