ATHABASCA — STARS representatives made yet another appearance in Athabasca for a mid-day presentation, hosted by the Rotary Club of Athabasca, on the potential for a joint helipad project after initial project plans fell through in 2019.
Glenda Farnden and Jon Gogan of STARS were in town for the third time this season, having helped facilitate the opening of a fuel cache in the region in July. Their focus point this go-round was reassessing community appetite for a helipad in Athabasca, and a revamp of Boyle’s out-of-use pad.
The pair presented statistics on the air ambulance service’s activity in the area, and examples of previous projects in the province, to a full room at the Athabasca Royal Canadian Legion Sept 20. The crowd of approximately 40 was made up of active Rotary members and their guests, who enjoyed the usual routine of lunch and conversation.
Barriers to the 2019 project included the COVID-19 pandemic, and Alberta Health Services (AHS) and Transport Canada helipad requirements. Farden, senior municipal relations liason for STARS noted Athabasca currently only meets one of three AHS requirements: Athabasca is more than 45 minutes away from tertiary, or highly specialized care.
But Athabasca falls short of the annual average of 10 inter-facility transfers, coming in with 8 transfers per year, and the Athabasca Airport is under 10 minutes away from the hospital. The town offered land for the helipad project in order to work around these barriers, an offer that Town of Athabasca mayor Rob Balay said is still on the table.
In 2019, project efforts were spearheaded by the Rotary club, and Balay said he hopes to see similar community initiative behind the renewed project.
“I think in order to get better buy-in, it should be led by a community group,” said Balay in a Sept. 22 interview. “We’re there to support this project in ways that we’re able to.”
Boyle mayor Colin Derko said during the Sept. 20 village council meeting that the three municipalities are toying with the idea of creating subcommittees for the town and village projects. Balay said both councils will have representation on the committees, but he would like to see more community representation than council members.
Farden said “it’s important that you understand that you’re ideally located, in the fact that you’re served by two STARS bases: Edmonton and Grande Prairie.”
Gogan pointed out that the Athabasca Healthcare Centre is the primary hospital for anyone within a 50-minute radius, the amount of time it takes a STARS unit dispatched from Edmonton to arrive in the area.
Athabasca County reeve Brian Hall also attended the presentation and expressed support for the project.
“In the discussions that I’ve been part of, my sense is that council recognizes the value of this type of infrastructure for our residents,” said Hall in a Sept. 21 interview.
Although topics for budget discussions aren’t set in stone, both Balay and Hall said the project is likely to come up in talks for the 2024 fiscal year, and during the presentation donations for in-kind labour and equipment were mentioned.
In addition to the benefit of increased emergency services access, the helipad project offers another silver lining: the higher volume of emergency calls could help local recruitment and retention efforts of health care professionals.
“Statistics have proven that once a helipad has been put in, the use of air ambulance goes up significantly,” said Balay.
