Territorial officials are reassessing their proposal to turn the former mine rescue station on Range Road into an ambulance bay following a heated public meeting on the issue held Tuesday night.

In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Gerard Dinn, Emergency Medical Services (EMS's) manager of clinical operations, said officials heard loud and clear area residents' opposition to the plan and are now reassessing their options.

With the decision just made after the meeting, Dinn said he was unsure what that would mean for a temporary bay, but noted he and others in EMS are committed to trying to improve health services through quicker ambulance response times.

To do that, the government had applied to the city to rezone the property for the bay while it waits for a permanent facility to be built.

"We're still dedicated to that,” Dinn said.

Many residents of Takhini came to the meeting hoping their voices of opposition would drown out the plans to put an ambulance bay in the neighbourhood.

In his many years working in ambulance services across the country, Dinn said he has never encountered reaction like he's seen over the proposal for Range Road. That includes similiar issues around housing ambulance services in residential areas.

Amid the substantial objections, including a Facebook page titled "Takhini Says No To More Sirens”, city council deferred its decision Monday night on whether to move forward on a rezoning application. Rezoning would allow for the temporary bay to operate out of the former mine rescue station at 456 Range Rd.

"It's being done in a really rushed fashion,” Coun. Doug Graham commented at Monday's meeting before joining all but Coun. Florence Roberts in voting to defer the matter.

Roberts suggested she would rather see EMS come back to council with a completely new proposal after it talks to city staff.

The deferral means the issue won't return to city council until its July 26 meeting, after two neighbourhood information sessions organized by EMS. Coun. Ranj Pillai is hoping, after further talks between the city and territory, to discuss other potential options for an ambulance bay.

Tuesday's first public meeting was held at Takhini Elementary School. Along with Mayor Bev Buckway passing along the time and place for the meeting at Monday's council session, sandwich boards advertising the meeting were place around the neighbourhood and Dan Cable, who started the Facebook page, let people know via the website.

Throughout his presentation to about 30 residents Tuesday night, Dinn reiterated why the temporary bay is needed and what makes the mine rescue station the best option.

Residents, in turn, continually stated their opposition to the plan. They argued there should have been more consultation on both short- and long-term plans for ambulance bays in the area.

While the territory is planning to build a new ambulance bay by 2012, an interim facility is needed to house the territory's growing fleet, Dinn has explained.

The mine rescue station has been deemed to be the best among a number of other locations EMS personnel looked at.

Those include:

• the city's firehall at the top of Two Mile Hill, with fire crews set to relocate to the new public safety building being constructed next to it;

• the Emergency Measures Organization site at the airport, Hangar D; and

• even putting a trailer in at the protective services site.

For a variety of reasons – sites like the firehall not being available, poor radio coverage at another and others – officials concluded the mine rescue building is the best option.

That left residents wondering why the territory had not pondered the need for a new building earlier as it was making decisions to expand capacity before the new building is constructed.

"Was there no foresight?” questioned one resident.

Another noted that in considering the various options, no thought was given to the impact on local residents as outlined in a chart detailing the considerations. Under the heading for community impacts is a blank space, which Dinn commented is what Tuesday evening was about.

Many of the questions asked of Dinn ended up in individual conversations among those attending, with comments ranging from a temporary location that works could easily turn into a permanent one and so on.

Dinn noted the city's rezoning process allows for extensive public comment where residents could speak to the matter.

He asked them to consider it from his perspective in finding a potential location and a process that would allow public input at the same time.

"It may not have been one of my best decisions,” he acknowledged, adding that he now wants to move forward.

One resident argued that by waiting for the input on the rezoning, the territory was transferring its burden onto the city.

In an interview before the meeting, Dinn said the level of opposition to the plan hadn't been expected, though he has also heard some positive remarks from people who want to see ambulance services closer to neighbourhoods up the hill.

As he noted the service is now all in one place in Riverdale. By having it operate out of both its current station at the hospital and in the Range

Road area, response times would quicken.

"It's not lopsided,” he said.

Many commented they understand why there should be a bay closer to neighbourhoods like Porter Creek, Copper Ridge and so on.

However, they continued to argue the former mine rescue station is not the spot for it. And in any case, the community should have been consulted on that and the long-term plans, which could put the permanent site at the corner of Hamilton Boulevard and the Alaska Highway.

Soil testing is now being done on the Hamilton Boulevard site to look at whether it can house the new structure.

Dinn said it was the citizens' extensive feedback that saw the territory organize Tuesday night's meeting and plan for another session on July

14, time and place still to be set.

By Wednesday morning, the Facebook page was up to 19 people listed as "liking” it (compared to 15 as of late Tuesday afternoon), with comments from a couple of residents asking for a summary of the meeting.

Others who have written on the page are encouraging those opposed to write to city council as well as the territory

Reads one post by Jennifer Ellis: "The City is responding to a poor proposal from EMS... while putting pressure on the City to say NO to this rezoning application (for the Mine Rescue Station), we should also put YTG's Dept. of Community Services on the spot for not consulting people and pushing to put this in a residential area. E-mail the minister, Archie Lang, and our MLA, John Edzerza, and tell them to go back to the drawing board and involve the public!”

No elected officials from either the city or territory were at Tuesday's gathering. Dinn noted a number of questions on the public process were of a political nature that he couldn't answer.

Along with suggesting letters be written to MLAs and city council, also included on the Facebook page are suggestions for other sites that could be used – vacant city land at Sumanik Drive and Hamilton Boulevard, for example – accompanied by photos.

As outlined in a brief description of what the page is about: "We are in favour of our friends in the EMS ambulances but why should Takhini bear the brunt of the burden for sirens for the City of Whitehorse? We already are shouldering a lot of the burden by having the main firehall in our community.”

At the meeting, area resident and the page's creator, Dan Cable, asked for documents showing policies around siren use, where calls come from and studies that have been done on the plans.

Cable has applied for the information through the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

"Community Services has dropped the community part of the ball,” Cable said , noting it was only through media reports of the rezoning application that he and others found out about the plans.

The media came under fire at Monday's council meeting. Graham suggested there's been incorrect information, with many getting the impression that it is the city proposing the site be used for ambulance services.

Rather, he said, the city is dealing with a rezoning application brought forward by EMS as it is required to, and as it would any other.

Graham wasn't the only council member to note his concerns over the "rushed” fashion the proposal has come forward in.

Coun. Betty Irwin also commented that it seemed to come forward "all of the sudden” because two new ambulances need a place.

She also argued parking is already an issue in the area.

Coun. Dave Austin said his biggest issue was the school zone. Coun. Ranj Pillai stated his hope the public outcry would begin a dialogue between the city and territory on a better site.

Buckway then proposed the deferral, stating that would provide time for the two public meetings to happen and wouldn't commit the city to anything.

As EMS reassesses the situation and council waits the better part of a month to discuss the matter, Takhini residents are continuing their own discussion through the Facebook page.