By Jessie Weisner

HALO IN NEED

HALO meets with province to discuss funding

Jul 18, 2019 | 4:51 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — In its 12 years of operations, HALO Air Ambulance has not had consistent financial support from the provincial government.

The foundation that serves Southeastern Alberta is trying to get that funding, and may now be a step closer.

However, on Wednesday, HALO representatives were able to meet with Health Minister Tyler Shandro, Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes, Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA Michaela Glasgo, Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter and Drumheller-Stettler MLA Nate Horner.

“The primary goal yesterday was to talk about the funding model,” says Paul Carolan, HALO Air Ambulance. “So we need to know about our sustained funding model looks like so we know what we have to go fundraise outside of that model.”

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HALO depends mostly on private donations.

“Almost all of our money comes from private donations and corporate donations at this time,” says Carolan. “So we get a lot of support from local municipalities and county’s which is invaluable.”

However, the provincial government has helped them out sporadically.

“We have traditionally had a lot of support from the provincial government specifically so we were on a ‘fee for service’ for a while, and then last year we had a one time $1 million dollar grant that enabled us to go to this helicopter but that caused us to get to a much higher budget so it was kind of a double edged sword,” says Carolan.

Sine the foundation purchased a new twin-engine helicopter, their operating costs have nearly tripled from $850,000 to $2.6 million.

Presenting a dire need for support in the upcoming provincial budget.

“We’re at the point now where were tens and tens of thousands of dollars short and that could potentially lead to an interruption of service,” says Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes. “That could potentially lead to the loss of a life.”

“What we need to figure out is how we’re going to fund the space between now and when we might see sustained funding for HALO in the provincial budget,” says Carolan.

However, Carolan is feeling positive.

He says he feels confident it won’t come to the point where services need to be cut, and that government support is likely coming.

“We had a great dialogue, really good open conversation about where we came from, why we think HALO is important and why we think it’s an essential service to our area,” says Carolan. “Really encouraged at this time, we really need the Alberta government to step up and that was an important step to getting there.”

The provincial budget will be tabled in the fall.