“Teachers, students and paramedics were among a group of about 80 demonstrators who descended on Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop’s Orillia office Friday afternoon. They were protesting the Progressive Conservative government’s funding cuts to various sectors.
“Janel Perron showed up Friday on behalf of paramedics and other members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). ‘The county got notified recently that the province has frozen funding for paramedics at 2017 levels,’ said Perron, a Simcoe County paramedic and a member of the executive board for OPSEU’s Region 3.
“That funding freeze doesn’t make sense, he said, when the call volume for Simcoe County Paramedic Services ‘goes up every year, roughly four-and-a-half to six per cent annually.’
“‘The county is going to have to determine how they are going to make up that shortfall or if they cut paramedics,’ he said. He had a request for Dunlop: ‘We are simply asking to be included in the process and consultations for the restructuring of paramedic services across the province.'”