Some time ago, my fiancée tried to commit suicide. I was out of the city, and instinctively called an ambulance, under the impression that when a human life was on the line, our emergency services could be called upon to make sure the love of my life pulls through this ordeal. Luckily, she made it, and was sent home shortly after. Turns out the root of her dark thoughts stemmed from financial stress we had been experiencing, which is actually the leading cause of suicide in both men and women. To my surprise, we were slapped with a nearly $400 bill a couple days later for the ambulance ride from near West Edmonton Mall to Misericordia Hospital. There was a life on the line, and we are to be punished for making the right call? I feel it necessary to point out that we were 18 and 19 years old at the time, living off of noodles and peanut butter sandwiches while we searched for jobs, so the extra bill and the poor care at the hospital did nothing to relieve either of us of suicidal thoughts. As I'm sure it would with any of you, it made us feel like the gov't of Alberta did not care about the people they are supposed to take care of...they just wanted a paycheck.

Effective January 15th, Alberta health charges $250 if the patient is treated at the scene, and $385 if the patient is transported to a hospital. The only exceptions are those with the Coverage for Seniors program, those on Income Support, and First Nations.

I called Alberta Health to see if this could be taken care of under the extreme circumstances, and the lady who answered told me a story. The short version is, there was a little boy who was in a car accident, about 10 years old, and he died around the time the ambulance arrived. The family received a $400 bill for little boy's ambulance ride to the hospital 2 days later. We are supposed to be able to rely on our emergency services, but at this point if I get shot while walking home at night, I'm more likely to try and make it to the hospital on my own or flag down a car. There is no excuse for this. Nobody should be punished for making the right choice in a life or death situation. Simple as that.

Alberta Health needs to stop taxing us for their assistance in matters of survival. That is their job, that's what they sign up for, that's why we have them around. Now, that tax is around for an obvious reason; so that we can afford the wages and equipment to make such a service possible, so if we eliminated funding to EMS entirely, we would be in a ton of trouble. The easiest solution would have been to invest money into Emergency Services instead of a $604.5 million stadium that no one who makes under 6-figures can afford to go to anyway, but it's obviously too late for that, so we have come up with changes to the Ambulance Fees that will make them more tolerable, and will come a touch closer to resembling Canadian values.

No Fee in the event of Fatality. This is a demand. I feel no need to explain why a grieving family member should not be presented with a $385 bill, especially not to the bright minds of Alberta Gov't.

No Fee for Attempted Suicides. Financial Stress is one of the leading causes of depression, which is the number one cause for suicide. Helping someone recover from an attempt, and then demanding money shortly afterwards is something I would expect from the bad guys in classic mobster movies. Not my elected officials I chose to take care of me. We demand a more reasonable approach to victims of depression that does not escalate the problem further.

Inform patients that they will be charged and allow alternatives if suggested.. When this first passed in January of 2015, it should have been advertised everywhere. On hospitals, in schools, phonebooks, internet ads, bus stops, newspapers, etc. ANYTHING to get the information out there. The sudden demand for payment leaves patients feeling like their lives didn't really matter, as long as the government makes some money off them. Also, if there is an alternate method of transportation available for the patient, that needs to be an option. Nobody should be threatened and physically guided (for lack of a better term) away from their family members if they are in good care with their loved ones, and/or have proper transportation to the medical facility nearest them.

Only tax the calls that are not entirely necessary. If an ambulance is called and the patient is not severely injured, and a reasonable person could assume the situation was not severe enough to warrant an ambulance, that person should be billed. If someone is having a heart attack, they should not be billed. It is a very easy distinction for the average person to make.

Implement PST to help fund EMS charges. It's not a huge deal to pay an extra 3 cents when buying chocolate milk at Tim's, and people will get used to it the same way they did in Beautiful British Columbia.

Eliminate the First Nations Exemption to the Fee. In the past decade or so, all levels of the Canadian Gov't have worked to improve the quality of life for Native Americans. However, in this particular matter, one truth is very obvious. A life is a life. The cost of saving ones life should not depend on race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. Under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Equality is mostly referred to in terms of law and imprisonment, so there is no direct quote to support this matter. However, WE do not support a gov't that categorizes the priority of life based on race. THIS WAY OF THINKING IS ABSOLUTELY DISGRACEFUL AND DOES NOT PROUDLY PRESENT CANADIAN VALUES, AS WE, CIVILIANS AND GOV'T OFFICIALS ALIKE, ALL SHOULD. It should depend on the simple fact that the person is in need of care. My suggestion would be to charge First Nations People for Emergency Services to help lower the necessary fee for all Canadians.

Implement a police and fire crew dispatch fee so there is more money overall going into funding our emergency services instead of relying strictly on the Ambulance Fees. The ambulance fee can then be lowered accordingly.

We, the undersigned, do not agree with the monetary obligation that comes with emergency medical attention. We will not pay the gov't of Alberta $385 strictly for having a desire to live. We will not tolerate racial discrimination in matters of life and death; all lives will be treated equally and charged equally. We insist that this policy be changed immediately to better suit the quality of life of Canadian Citizens.