HALO Air Ambulance provides emergency medical services, supports search and rescue operations and works with tandem with police initiatives. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

By Eli J. Ridder

CITY HALL

HALO president ‘disappointed’ after Medicine Hat council defers $500K funding request

Dec 19, 2024 | 1:46 PM

HALO Air Ambulance’s top executive says he is “disappointed” that Medicine Hat’s elected leaders chose not to include the organization’s funding request in the city’s next two-year budget despite community support for the emergency helicopter service.

“It won’t come as any as a surprise to anybody that we’re disappointed,” CEO Paul Carolan told CHAT News on Thursday.

“Having the city at the table financially was a milestone for HALO and and something we thought was very very important.”

Only councillors Robert Dumanowski and Cassi Hider voted on Monday to include $500,000 in HALO funding — distributed at $250,00 per year — in the 2025-26 budget.

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Carolan said supporting HALO would’ve given a council that has been under intense public scrutiny a victory.

“We have a council that’s that’s been through some turmoil and they’ve had a challenging couple of years and and so I think to go out on a win with something like funding for Halo would have been a great position to be,” he said.

Administrative staff recommended council defer HALO’s request until a “formal framework” could be developed to handle such asks.

Carolan said HALO will apply when such a non-profit application structure is set up but is concerned about how his organization will fit into the process.

HALO Air Ambulance CEO Paul Carolan says funding for his organization could’ve been a win for a city council that has experienced recent turmoil. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

“The hurdle we have to overcome is that Halo is unique…we’re we’re a life-saving emergency service. And so treating us as a traditional nonprofit I think is a is a mistake,” he said.

HALO will still be able to operate. It receives just less than 50 per cent of its funding from the Alberta government, with the rest coming from municipalities that surround Medicine Hat and individual donors.

Its local focus is intentional.

“One of the reasons we don’t want to have more than half of our funding from the province is we do want to be connected to the community,” he said.

“We want the foundation to be out there and keeping Halo front of mind to make sure that people understand the importance of HALO.”

While HALO’s primary focus is on responding to medical emergencies throughout southeastern Alberta, it also provides support to tackle wildfires, help with search and rescue operations and collaborate with police missions.

Many of those around the horseshoe offered support to HALO during Monday’s budget deliberations but didn’t want to commit funding without a process in placing for vetting requests.

“I 100 per cent support HALO,” said Coun. Shila Sharps at council.

“What I don’t support is favouritism for our community. HALO provides incredible service regionally, so does the Medicine Hat Womens’ Shelter, so does the food bank, so does a lot of different groups out there,” she added.

“I would like to see administration draw a policy that includes operational and capital costs and have it ready for council. But to single out one organization doesn’t sit with me at all, I mean we’re picking and choosing and that’s not right.”

It wasn’t immediately clear when staff could bring forward such a process.

Requests for cash from the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede and the Medicine Hat Womens’ Shelter Society were also not included in the 2025-26 budget.