Paramedics were rallying in Moncton on Monday against New Brunswick’s language regulations, saying an increasing number of first responders have been forced to find work elsewhere.
Under the province’s language law, paramedics must be able to provide service to patients in both official languages. If a bilingual paramedic calls in sick, a bilingual paramedic must replace them.
“They're telling people that have been born and brought up in a certain area,” said Pat Hepditch, president of the New Brunswick Council of Hospital Unions,“that because you can't meet a proficiency test, you're no longer good enough to work there.”
That could mean calling in someone from a different community.
“If they can't find anybody,that ambulance goes out of service. That ambulance is parked,” said Hepditch.
Hepditch says the language policy is forcing unilingual paramedics to leave the province for work, affecting staffing levels in New Brunswick.
“It could be done with a translation service. Patient care has never been affected in any of these language complaints. Not one patient has been affected by whether they were treated by an anglophone or francophone paramedic,” said Hepditch.
Health Minister Victor Boudreau says he can't speak to that, but insists linguistic policies in New Brunswick need to be followed.
“I do know that it certainly caused complaints in the past and even some legal pursuits,” said Boudreau.
A similar rally was held in Saint John, where CUPE provincial vice-president Denny Cogswell said the language law is creating animosity among paramedics.
“For our people, this isn't about the law. This is about how this company’schoosing to implement that law to cause a division within our workforce,” said Cogswell.
Boudreau says there is no choice when it comes to the law.
“Ambulance New Brunswick, being a third-party service provider to government, does have to respect the linguistic laws that are in place.”
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis.
