County Council Highlights for Oct. 6, 2021

Warden Commends Staff for Awards, Dedication and New Ideas

Warden Gary McNamara applauded the work and accomplishments of Essex County staff in his remarks at the beginning of Wednesday’s council meeting.

“It has been inspiring over the last 19 months to watch our dedicated County of Essex staff going above and beyond while continuing to enhance their skills,” he said.

He congratulated Sun Parlor Home’s Renée Renaud for being awarded the Donna Rubin Leadership Program Award by AdvantAge Ontario. Renaud, the home’s assistant director of care and infection prevention control, received the award for getting the highest case study mark in an intensive leadership training program in 2021.

McNamara praised Sun Parlor staff for doing an outstanding job and making a difference in the lives of residents and their families.

“The staff at Essex-Windsor EMS are also to be commended for your tireless work on the front lines,” the warden said before welcoming 14 new paramedic recruits.

“New staff members bring fresh ideas and approaches that help us improve services to the residents of Essex County,” McNamara said.

He complimented active transportation coordinator Diana Radulescu, who joined the county staff earlier this year, for this month’s CWATS initiative: the Rethink Your Drive Contest. To enter, residents can walk, ride a bike or use some other form of active transportation instead of driving a car for short trips in Essex County. The contest details are on the County of Essex website.

“We can all benefit from the exercise we get from rethinking our drive, and it’s a great way to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” said McNamara.

County Adopts Land Acknowledgement Statement

Essex County Council has adopted a land acknowledgement that will be read at the beginning of meetings and other events.

“We (I) begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, comprised of the Ojibway, Odawa and Potawatomie Peoples,” the acknowledgement states. “To recognize the land is an expression of gratitude to those whose territory you reside on, and a way of honouring the Indigenous people who have been living and working on the land from time immemorial. We value the significant historical and contemporary contributions of local and regional First Nations and all the Original Peoples of Turtle Island.”

While the statement will be used going forward, it may be revised based on feedback and advice council receives over the next year.

“The adoption of a Land Acknowledgement, as well as the recent recognition of the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation by Essex County Council, has prompted Administration to look for opportunities to promote an educational and cultural awareness program for Staff,” says a report to council by Mary Birch, director of council and community services and clerk. “As a first step, Administration has recently obtained a membership to the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion.”

Emergency Medical Services Navigating Pandemic Challenges as Calls Increase

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services like nothing before, but there is a path forward, Chief Bruce Krauter said in a report to council.

Essex-Windsor EMS “is planning, changing, altering course based on clear evidence, historical data and experience,” says the report, which presents the latest ambulance call volumes, response times and wait times for unloading patients with non-life-threatening conditions at hospital emergency departments.

Call volumes, which dropped in 2020, have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels while response times have increased. The average time ambulances are waiting to unload non-critically ill and injured patients at hospitals is also on the rise.

EMS, Windsor Regional Hospital, Erie Shores HealthCare and Ontario Health have reduced the delays at hospital ERs since 2018. Some of the recent rebound can be attributed to collateral damage from the pandemic, as hospitals deal with a backlog of patients who have delayed treatment and others who show up at ERs because they can’t get immediate care in the community, says Krauter’s report.

The report projects Essex-Windsor EMS will miss its targets for responding to all types of calls in 2021. Even prior to the pandemic in 2017 and 2018, it wasn’t always meeting those targets, but in 2020 and 2021 some of the most urgent calls have been affected.

Essex-Windsor EMS responded to cardiac arrests within six minutes 53 per cent of the time in 2020 and that is projected to fall to 50 per cent this year, compared to the target of 55 per cent. The service’s target for responding to other serious life-threatening emergencies – referred to as Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) Level 1 – is eight minutes or less 75 per cent of the time. It met that target in 2020, but this year it is projected that only 68 per cent of the time will ambulances get to those patients within eight minutes.

COVID-19 has made meeting the targets difficult, says Krauter’s report: “With the increased amount of time for personal protective equipment (PPE) application upon arrival at scenes, cleaning of equipment post call, the decreased capacity at hospitals and the fluctuation, or unpredictability of call volume, response times have been under pressure.”

Average response times for the most serious cases (CTAS levels 1 and 2) have increased in Windsor and all Essex County municipalities by anywhere from six seconds to almost two minutes compared to 2019.

To make the best use of its resources, Essex-Windsor EMS has redeployed staff and ambulances to better cover the busiest times, says Krauter’s report.

The number of ambulances and paramedics on duty during the busiest hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. has been increased, with a corresponding decrease in the number working midnight to 7 a.m. — typically, the quietest time This scheduling change fulfills a recommendation in the service’s 10-year master plan, which was adopted in 2019.

The master plan didn’t anticipate the pandemic, but the road map it sets out remains relevant, says Krauter’s report. It is also expected call volumes will continue their historical trend by increasing by two to three per cent a year.

The need for more resources will be addressed in the EMS’s 2022 budget proposal, says the report.

Council Calls on Province to Address ‘Renovictions’

County council endorsed a resolution by the City of Sarnia calling on the Ontario government to prevent rental property owners from evicting tenants when doing major renovations.

The resolution calls “renovictions” an increasingly common “unscrupulous” practice which is hurting the most vulnerable and exacerbating the affordable housing crisis.