A handful of paramedics are the latest group to sound the alarm over plans to close the City Centre Airport. They made an appearance at a news conference Wednesday morning, which was organized by Envision Edmonton, the group petitioning to keep the airport open.
Envision Edmonton has been holding news conferences pretty much weekly in its fight to keep the airport open. And Wednesday's focus is medevac and concerns grounding flights here will cost lives.
David Sorensen knows what a difference minutes make when he's flying a critically ill patient into Edmonton. The flight paramedic is adding his voice to the group appealing to city council to reverse plans to shut down the City Centre Airport.
"There are patients that will suffer from an extended transport time," said Sorensen.
Health Canada says the regulation of ambulance service is a provincial matter. And despite the provincial government's position to remain neutral in the debate, Edmonton MLA Doug Elniski is voicing his opinion on the matter, and urging the city to keep the facility open.
"I went to the premier about a year, year-and-a-half ago and said, 'you understand premier, that this particular facility is in my constituency and I cannot remain neutral on this issue'", said Elniski.
Envision Edmonton needs to gather close to 80,000 signatures to force the city to revisit the decision.
