Replacement Ambulance Costing Fire Brigade Tens of Thousands
Written by Paul Graif on 30 June 2021
The replacement yellow ambulance that has been in the community for the last several months is costing the Kahnawake Fire Brigade (KFB) $125 a day in rental fees that are not covered by insurance. The KFB has been renting the ambulance since an accident took the second vehicle off the roads in January.
“We brought the yellow ambulance in to supplement our primary ambulance. We do enough calls that we need the two ambulances,” Fire Chief David Scott said. “We placed an order at that time with Crestline Coach in Saskatoon for a new ambulance at a cost of almost $250 000, with a delivery date of July-August. However, we’ve been informed in the last few weeks that due to the global shortage of parts and computer chips and whatever else is not arriving to the manufacturing company, the ambulance is slated to be delivered now October-November.”
That means the costs could mount to as much as $36 000 in rental fees over 10 months.
“We have appropriated funds to replace our ambulances on a seven year basis and we had to access those funds two years early to replace this. This ambulance that was in the accident and was a write-off was due to be replaced in two years,” Scott said.
