By Kevin J Sabo
For the Advance
There are few sights in the Alberta skies more recognizable than the red helicopters flown by STARS.
The paramedics, nurses, doctors, and pilots of STARS have become an invaluable link in the chain of survival and they have flown in the Paintearth County region more than 30 times since 2013.
It is for this reason that the councillors of Paintearth County voted to raise the county’s per capita funding of the service from $3 to $5, using 2016 statistics in a 5-2 split council vote.
“This is something that every ratepayer might use,” said Coun. George Glazier, in support of the increase.
At $5 per capita, the total donation will amount to about $10,500. STARS relies on funding from municipalities, the Alberta Government and their various fundraising initiatives to keep flying, and providing the essential service to Albertans.
Flying it’s first mission on Dec. 1, 1985, from their base in Calgary, the air ambulance service has grown to include six bases spread between Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, providing services throughout four provinces. Originally flying 50 missions in its first year of operation, the service now averages eight missions per day, and STARS has surpassed 40,000 total missions flown.
The wear and tear on the airframes have taken their toll, as the venerable BK-117 ‘s are becoming more and more costly to maintain. With the airframes out of production and parts getting harder to acquire, STARS has set their sights on replace their workhorse helicopter with the Airbus H145, an updated version of the Bk-117. With their current goal of nine replacement helicopters spread across the prairies, the transition will be a slow and costly one, ending in a total cost of $117 million.
The first of the new helicopters will be delivered to the STARS base in Calgary sometime in the next few weeks.
Council’s decision to fund STARS at $5 per capita will only be in effect for 2019, and the topic will be revisited in 2020.