Other Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley councils have supported a Langley City call to have the provincial compensated municipalities when firefighters have to function as fill-in paramedics.
Langley City Mayor Nathan Pachal said the City resolution “calls on the provincial government to reimburse local governments when firefighters respond to medical calls due to the chronic underfunding of the Ambulance Service in BC.”
It was one of four Langley City calls to action to be endorsed by the Lower Mainland Local Government Association (LMLGA), which covers the Fraser Canyon from Boston Bar, the Fraser Valley, Metro Vancouver, and the Sea to Sky corridor to Pemberton.
Held May 1 to 3 in Whistler, the association’s annual conference had a theme of “tackling the big issues.”
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Also endorsed was a Langley City call for an expansion of the B.C. Housing “Heart and Hearth” homelessness reduction programs to all communities in BC.
Currently, the program only operates in Prince George, Kelowna, Abbotsford, Nanaimo and Victoria.
A third Langley City resolution asked the province to build new courthouses in areas with limited court access, like Langley, which has no courthouse, and the fourth asks the province for “more financial and staff support to help local governments implement the province’s new housing legislation, regulations, and policies.”
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With the LMLGA endorsements, the Langley City proposals now go to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention in September for debate and potential adoption, after which they would go to the provincial government.
“The province always responds to supported [UBCM] resolutions, even if the response is that they will take no action,” Pachal commented.