Several hundred people in Alberta must re-take First Aid and CPR courses taught by Calgary company, First Aid Calgary.
Ryan MacIntyre is a child and youth care worker and has to keep up his First Aid and CPR training.
In March 2015, he took a weekend course for Emergency and Standard First Aid through First Aid Calgary and was re-certified for three years.
“I did a search and I believed it was well-recognized and went to the course with the full intent of getting my certificate, which I did,” said MacIntyre.
However in early September, he received an email from the company that the training wasn’t valid in Alberta and anyone who took the courses between March and August had to be re-certified.
The material for the course came from a U.S. company called Emergency Care and Safety Institute, and it wasn’t approved to be taught in Alberta.
“You’re supposed to offer an OHS-certified First Aid training program so that everybody is working on the same program, on the same principles those programs are based on,” said Wayne Wood with Alberta Occupational Health and Safety.
First Aid Calgary operates two training centres in Calgary and issued a statement saying it was a mistake.
“We were told by the company this program was certified through OH&S [Occupational Health & Safety].
After teaching the program for a few months, the government informed us it was not. We are offering that anyone who took the ECSI course to receive a certified card through the Life Saving Society.
They must attend a full eight hours to meet the requirements of the government. We are trying very hard to ensure that our mistakes our fixed.”
While the new training will not cost anything extra, MacIntyre said it’s inconvenient and that the company should have known better.
The province said there won’t be any penalty.
Investigators are working with First Aid Calgary to make sure it’s using all the approved training programs.
Here is a link to the list of approved agencies allowed to teach and train personnel in First Aid.
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