NAPE’s Air Service bargaining group is postponing negotiations with government.

This comes following a government announcement of a RFP for the integration of ambulance services, which includes privatization of the air ambulance services.

The collective agreement has been expired since March 2022.

The union questions the decision to privatize, considering their findings that the private system will cost nearly five times more than the solution put forward by NAPE to the Health Accord.

NAPE President Jerry Earle says 29 of their 66 bargaining unit members are now facing uncertainty right before Christmas.

He says there is never a good time to be told you may not have a job, but to do so a couple of weeks before Christmas is “unacceptable”.

Earle says they are in the process of getting a legal opinion on filing a bad faith bargaining complaint with the labour relations board.

Union Secretary Treasurer, Trevor King, says their only path forward in the immediate term is to stall bargaining.

He says even if government came forward to reach an agreement, just picture trying to ratify an agreement without giving them assurances of job security.