Nenshi slams province's plan to take over Calgary's ambulance dispatch

Mayor Naheed Nenshi is hoping the province pulls the plugon its plans to take over 911 dispatch for ambulance services in Calgary after hearing how much it's paying for an empty dispatch centre.

"They're paying $60,000a month for rent, how are they possibly going to do this cheaper than the City of Calgary?" he said.

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The province has been paying the monthly fee since April in anticipation of taking over the service.

"It's just not credible," said Nenshion the proposal to transfer of responsibilities.

"So we have a situation where we fully know this is going to increase response times, we know that increased response times lead to lower patient outcomes and it's going to cost the same or way more. Why are we even having this discussion?"

Nenshi says he's been asked to send data to the health minister about the city's service and thinksit's weird the province is asking for the information now,even though it's been saying for over a year that it intends to proceed with thetakeover.