Winnipeg’s Fire Paramedic chief has apologized for any damage his actions may have caused to members of the city’s paramedics union
Last week an arbitrator ruled Chief John Lane failed his employees by refusing to admit he was wrong when he attacked paramedics and their union in 2015.
“I deeply regret my actions and I regret the distraction that those actions have caused,” Chief Lane said Thursday.
The paramedics’ union, MGEU, filed a grievance after learning about remarks made during a 2015 panel on Winnipeg’s integrated fire-paramedic model.
In the program description of that talk it said “…this fire-based model is continuously threatened by single role EMS providers and misinformed leaders.”
The arbitrator ruled “…the Chief’s handling of this affair was flawed from the outset…a sincere apology at the earliest possible opportunity would have mitigated the damage but…this did not happen.”
It awarded each Winnipeg paramedic $300 dollars and a lump sum of $10,000 to the union.
When asked what he would have to say to taxpayers who are now on the hook for more than $100 thousand dollars Lane said he was focusing on making sure the service can continue to deliver care to Winnipeggers.
“That’s what I’m committed to,” Lane said.