New Ambulance New Brunswick policy lets unilingual paramedics stay on for now

Ambulance New Brunswick says it's implementing a directive from the Blaine Higgs government on language-based hiring of paramedics.

Medavie, which runs the ambulance system,has frozen the re-posting of vacant bilingual positions every eight weeks, something Health Minister Ted Flemming ordered on Dec. 18, saidspokesperson Chisholm Pothier.

That was one of the recommendations in a labour board ruling last year by arbitrator John McEvoy, who said the repeated re-posting of vacant bilingual positions was interfering with the seniority rights of the unionized paramedics.

It's a significant move because deputy premier Robert Gauvin suggested before Christmas that Medavie was trying to "delay as long as possible" the implementation of the McEvoy ruling pending the outcome of a court hearing next week.

The judicial review will determine if McEvoy's recommendations comply with the Official Languages Act.

Ambulance New Brunswick requires at least one paramedic in each two-person ambulance crew to be bilingual to comply with the law.

When no bilingual candidate has been available to fill a vacancy, the organization has temporarily hired unilingual paramedics for eight weeks at a time, then has re-posted the positions.

A unilingual paramedic will now be able to stay in a position indefinitely, until a qualified bilingual applicant comes along.

Higgs and People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin have claimed the inability to fill vacant bilingual positions has led to ambulances not being on the road, something Medavie has said is not true.

Pothier said so far, Ambulance New Brunswick has not adopted the province's suggestion of reducing bilingual requirements in areas where the government feels there is less demand for second-language service another of McEvoy's recommendations.

Part of Flemming's Dec. 18 directive was to hire paramedics based on seniority for what he called "non-relevant bilingual positions."

Pothier said it's too early to implement that because "I don't think 'relevant bilingual positions' has been defined at this point."

He said Ambulance New Brunswick plans to review how much demand there is for bilingual service but only after it has established a new separate service for transporting patients from hospital to hospital.

The service won't require bilingual paramedics because the language choice of the patient will be registered in advance. That, in turn, will allow Ambulance New Brunswick to hire 40 full-time unilingual paramedics, lessening the need for as many bilingual staff.

That system should be in place by the end of March, Pothier said.