Four and a half years ago the chief of the Winkler Fire Department spearheaded lobby efforts to have changes made to two provincial acts that guide medical care in Manitoba, and those efforts have paved the way to important clarifications.

Fire Chief Richard Paetzold says the act wasn't changed, but clarifications were made on what fire departments can do prior to EMS arriving at an emergency scene. Paetzold notes the call for changes stemmed from a situation dating back to 2014.

"We got dispatched to a call, and we had to wait quite a while in that case for an ambulance because the ambulances that were close were on other calls. In the meantime we just did what we had always done, and took care of business because we have trained people to do that," said Paetzold.

It was after that call that it was brought to Paetzold's attention that they may have gone beyond their scope when it came to the care they were giving. "Being the person I am, I don't like to work in shades of grey, I like to control the controllable."

Paetzold said he then brought the matter up to their mutual aid district, and they also agreed it was something that needed to be clarified. A resolution was then presented at the 2015 Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs (MAFC) conference and was approved. A committee was formed as a result of the resolution, which Paetzold was a member of.

After a lot of good work from Manitoba Health, MAFC, and the Office of the Fire Commissioner, at the end of the day, Paetzold said it was found three skills they requested to have authorization to use in emergency situations prior to EMS arrival, that they would not be in contravention of those acts if the skills are performed.

"As long as we train for them, and document that training and minimized the risk to our municipalities in doing that service," added Paetzold.

The skills include airway management, oxygen therapy, and automated external defibrillation.

When at a scene, Paetzold says they make sure to have properly trained people doing those skills. "In our case, we do have active paramedics on our department, we have over a dozen EMR (Emergency Medical Responder) trained people, and then everyone else is trained to a first aid level," said Paetzold. "We do our training so that everybody can do these skills."

"For me personally, I like to try and do the best job that I can," said Paezold. "One of my goals being fire chief in Winkler is to give the citizens that we look after in the City of Winkler and the R.M. of Stanley the best service possible . . . this is for the people we serve, and it could for my family too."