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Relationshipping
Relationships are peculiar things. One side may feel things are going great, while the other stews in discontent. Each smiles as they pass the other. One oblivious, the other not quite so unhappy as to make it a thing—to risk the conflagration that would follow. Both have learned that ‘talking about it’ doesn’t produce lasting results. So both sag into an uneasy silence. Years go by like this. Calluses form over unspoken acceptance.
So it was that Hastings County came to a committee of council last week to talk. Specifically, they were there to ask Prince Edward County to chip in more to the shared ambulance service that operates in the region from Bancroft, Trenton, Madoc, Tweed and Prince Edward County. The Hastings Quinte Paramedic Services (HQPS) is headquartered in Belleville and operates from six bases, with two in the regional urban centre. Each community contributes to the cost of the service, and a five-year contract binds this arrangement.
But ambulance calls are rising—it seems disproportionately—in Prince Edward County. HQPS wants to increase evening staffing, and it wants the County to pay for it.
Chief Carl Bowker and Hastings County Chief Administrative Officer Jim Pine came prepared. Their PowerPoint was packed with charts depicting call volumes over the past 15 years. Trends show more ambulances coming from Belleville into the County at night. In 2007, Hastings conducted about 20 per cent of Prince Edward County calls at night. By last year the County was leaning on Belleville for 37 per cent of such calls. Their presentation was solid.
Their proposed remedy is that the County pony up another $2.1 million over the next two and half years of the contract ($654,963 of which may be recovered from the province.)
Chief Bowker and Pine were professional and congenial, but they were firm—they insist the County to pay its fair share.
Council had a few questions. Nothing too probing. A Picton councillor explained to his colleagues that “the numbers are the numbers.” And with that, the wheels were set in motion to grant our neighbours their request.
But hang on a minute. What about Rossmore and Fenwood Gardens waterworks? For three decades, the County has overpaid for the water it receives from Belleville for these two communities. In 2021, Belleville charged $2.42 per cubic metre to strangers with a truck. For its good neighbours in the County, however, Belleville’s bulk water was $4.34/m3. Same water. Same tap. Nearly 80 per cent more expensive. County water consumers have spent millions of dollars more on this water supply than had they simply driven over with tanks and hauled it across the bridge.
It is obviously unfair and unjust. The County has made presentations. It has laid out its case several times over the past 15 years. The conversation polite and congenial. And yet nothing happens.
So maybe, and I am just spitballin’ here, but perhaps this was a moment to put this long-standing irritant on the table? If not now, when?
Yes, I know, Hastings County isn’t the same as Belleville, nor are ambulance services linked to waterworks. But in these circumstances, Pine et al. had come to Shire Hall at the bidding of Belleville. It is Belleville that is effectively subsidizing the increased evening ambulance coverage required in the County. (Pine acknowledged as much by noting the hit on Hastings County budget if the County ignored his request, would be modest—much less than the amount he and Bowker were seeking from the County.)
Pine appealed to the County’s graciousness; the notion that we are good neighbours who benefit from working together. He is right. But it works both ways.
If the regional ambulance arrangement were to fall apart, the County would have to go it alone. While not desirable, it would be manageable. If Belleville turned off the tap to Rossmore and Fenwood Gardens— hundreds of families would be out of water, instantly. Good neighbours don’t hose the other, year after year, decade after decade, merely because they can.
Relationships only work when we can talk about the things that wear away at us—when we work toward compromise—when we understand each other’s position. Pine and Bowker showed us what good communication between neighbours looks like.
County Council, meanwhile, sat quietly. It listened attentively. Then it agreed to change the deal—sliding an additional $2.1 million across the table.
It may be fair. It may be reasonable. But our relationship is more complex than this single file. For a moment there, we had leverage to push for a resolution to our long-standing water grievance. Then Council gave it away. Oblivious.
Hastings is better at relationships.
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