Comments from St. John Ambulance (SJA) provincial headquarters personnel in the recent Peak front page article [“St. John Ambulance closes Townsite division,” February 14] clearly gives the assumption that our local brigade is at fault for the closure.
Anyone who has ever taken a first aid class knows that in your approach to a situation a series of steps have to be taken to be able to deal with the problem. One of these steps is obtaining a detailed history of what happened to have a better understanding of how to deal with it. Such is the case here.
The way SJA is structured is two-sided. One aspect of the organization is the original volunteer side that dates back to the Crusades. More recently, the ensuing brigade of first aid volunteers flourished in England, spread around the world and started in Canada in 1882. Although brigade volunteers do not always receive pay for services, there are often costs involved (training, uniforms, equipment used, fuel for post, et cetera).
Locally, SJA volunteers have tried to raise funds through private donations, helping at the old bingo hall until it closed and, more recently, applying for gaming funds from BC Lottery Corporation.
When it was obvious to members of the organization a few years back that serious internal financial issues were happening, provincial headquarters restructured to solve some of the problems. By channelling all funding sources (private donations, gaming funds and product markups) through headquarters to make decisions of who and how much would be funded, they choked out the very means on which their original mandate was structured.
In providing accurate information to the public, care must be taken to ensure this information is as correct as possible from both sides of the situation, with no bias intended.
Provincial headquarters personnel stated that our local brigade was not meeting its financial obligations, but it was their own actions that cut off mandated supplemental funding to support any shortfall we had. Also, stating that our local brigade did not attend all of their requested coverage of events is absolutely untrue. In recent times, although membership has declined slightly, (mainly due to lack of support from headquarters), we have only had to turn down one request.
SJA BC and Yukon chief executive officer Karen MacPherson’s comment that the issue “was more of a leadership decision at the volunteer level” is not true. All of our divisional superintendents have been very dedicated, competent, and above all, extremely supportive of the mandate of the brigade and its members.
As a member of the brigade, I find the insinuation of our inadequacy to be offensive and demeaning.
When there is no transparency in financial statements from provincial headquarters, when missing brigade funds are not accounted for, and when people asking questions are fired or told to back off, then the credibility of the organization is certainly questionable.
Corporate injustices and misappropriations do not support the fact that the not-for-profit volunteer aspect of their organization is the reason they are there.
Heather Farrell-Sketchley is a St. John Ambulance first aid instructor and brigade volunteer.
