HALO CEO Paul Carolan speaks during the announcement that the air ambulance service will receive more than $1 million annually over the the next five years from the province. (Photo Courtesy Chris Brown)

By Chris Brown

More than $1M annually for five years

Sustained HALO funding the culmination of almost 20 years of advocacy

Mar 31, 2022 | 4:28 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Paul Carolan can’t imagine a bigger honour than what happened Thursday morning.

The HALO CEO was emotional at the news that for the first time ever, the air ambulance service that serves southeastern Alberta is getting guaranteed funding from the provincial government.

“This represents the missing partnership that HALO has been advocating for for almost 20 years,” he said. “I cannot even come close to recognizing the amount of people that have both donated financially and advocated for this program politically and with their MLAs and the ministers over that entire time.”

Premier Jason Kenney was in the city for the day to announce more than $1 million in annual funding for the next five years for HALO and a guaranteed contract with Alberta Health Services.

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It was only two years ago that HALO announced it was on life support and the future of the air ambulance was in jeopardy.

HALO currently is funded by the province on a fee-for-service basis amounting to about $200,000 a year. That’s much less than the $3 million a year needed to keep it in the air.

So HALO has relied on private and public donations, as well as its own fundraising initiatives.

“HALO’s been a program that was almost a typical month-to-month household. We didn’t always know where the next payment was going to come from and where the next bill was going to get paid from,” Carolan said.

He added the sustained funding allows HALO to be more deliberate and to better plan strategic long-term goals.

“Lots of big picture questions we could never ask ourselves before because we worked so diligently and so hard just to make sure that we had enough money in the bank to keep flying,” he said.

Rural municipalities have also been big contributors. The County of Newell announced in December it would increase its funding, and last March Cypress County and Reeve Dan Hamilton announced multi-year funding totalling $1.1 million.

“This what the county has been fighting for for years to get predicable and sustainable funding for HALO. This is the best news HALO has got,” Hamilton said. “A few years ago people said let HALO die and it was looking like they were going to but a bunch of the councillors and that, we got together we got behind it and really pushed to get to where we are today.”

“This represents the missing partnership that HALO has been advocating for for almost 20 years,” – Paul Carolan

Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA Michaela Frey said the funding is not only well-deserved, but essential for rural Alberta.

The premier said he didn’t know why previous government’s didn’t provide stable funding to HALO. He said the UCP commissioned a report in 2019 about improving air ambulance services. That, combined with additional pressure on emergency medical services right across the province, prompted the government to act now.

“So we worked with department of finance to bring forward additional funding to address these EMS pressures generally an part of that was additional funding for air ambulance services so we’re getting to the right decision,” Kenney said.

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Carolan said HALO won’t take its foot off the gas on fundraising or partnerships with rural municipalities.

“The relationship, the connection to community is invaluable, we never want to get away from that.”

After working so long to get sustainable funding from the province, Carolan struggled to describe how much Thursday’s announcement meant to him.

“I’ve been a part of emergency services for a long time both as a paramedic and volunteer and HALO sort of encapsules all of that. So it’s an incredible honour,” he said. “But it’s just one of those things that grabs ahold of you and won’t let go. And it’ll take me a few days to truly process the announcement today but I think it’s historic.”

The Fort McMurray-based HERO air ambulance service will get almost $2 million under a new five-year contract. Last week the province announced it would increase funding for Stars Air Ambulance to $15 million annually.