climberguy

I received the email on Sep. 27th. It will be $325 for next year. They even break it down to a monthly cost in brackets next to the $325 :roll:

I am suprised no one has brought this up yet. The fees are going up by over $100.00. The info came along with all this fee increase propaganda and comparisons to other proffesional fees :roll: Anyways...what are your thoughts on this?

No offense taken as I think we are on the same page. Personally, I don't think that EMR's or even EMT's have any business doing medical standby 3 hours from the nearest hospital. I say this as an EMR that has over 2 years up "there". I have heard way to many horror stories about "bandaids" that did not know wtf to do when the shit hit the fan. So yeah...if you want to stagnate, be lazy, get fat and gain absolutely no EMS experience then the oil patch is the perfect place to be. The money is good though...but it's a double edged sword. I had all these plans to quickly save cash and to move on to EMT as fast as possible. The reality is frequent shutdowns due to rain along with other reasons, getting to work to start your 3 week shift and then sitting around for a week or more waiting for a job, then you get one and it shuts down in a week. Or you look at the consultant wrong, or if he wanted a female medic then your out. It's fine if you are single, but if you are married it is really really tough. You can't just wait up there indefinately while your family is back home wondering how long you will be gone for. I fell into a trap of working up there for a few weeks, getting a huge cheque or 2 and then stretching out my $$ and time off for as long as possible so I did not have to return to that hole. I would look at local "average" jobs and think...no way...why take X amount when I am making this much. Then run low on cash and head back up. It's really easy to fall into this loop. There is a plus side though. I would get tons of time off and was able to get out into the mountains for weeks at a time to play. The lack of consistency and inability to plan finances is what eventually made me leave....equal to being sick of not getting any real experience and the money never came to be able to pay outright for an EMT course. Only an idiot expects change while doing the same thing over and over. If you are single though, and have no commitments you can save money quite quickly. If I was to do it again (if I were single) I would move out of my place. No rent....all accomodation paid for up there. When you do get your time off go travel with your tent if you are the "outdoorsy" type. Instead of rent, sock away your cash and pay for further training and then get out of there asap. I make half of what I was making up north per day and yet, I am making more in the end. If it rains I still have work now. I actually live where I live now...full time and I no longer have to go up to that hole. I am finally able to actually start putting away coin for an EMT course. I have my foot in the door and once my commitment of this position is up, I will be able to make the move (hopefully) into real EMS work. I was once "skidded" off a site for not entering a smoke filled trailer...even though I had no breathing apparatus. Sorry bub, I don't enter burning buildings with or without PPE. Here's some quotes. I show up at a job site and a supervisor says to me "where's your tits?". Showed up late (due to horrible directions) at a job site and yokel Joe tells us "we started the frac and the consultant made us the designated medics until you showed up." These guys had standard CPR. Keep in mind that fracs are considered very high risk jobs. "I only like female medics because it's a woman's job. Men should be on the rigs" "Hey Barb, put the bandaid to work in the kitchen. He can help you bake cookies hahaha" "Women have no place here because all they do is cause trouble and distract the boys." "Is it really neccessary to write up paperwork on this? We will loose our safety days bonus if you do." Leaves all pissed off after I told him why it was neccessary - Rig manager "If anything happens we won't call you anyways. You don't need to be here. We always just drive any one with injuries to the hospital our self." - Rig Manager :roll: "So last night we got to practice IV's. We got pissed and "she" didn't want to be hung over so she tried to start an IV on herself and ended up stabbing herself like 5 times hahahaha. She finally got it but she's got bruises all over her arms now hahaha." - a medic on location. This other "medic" was responsible for a rig that was running 24 hours. This is a fine example of the scum that is keeping the respect away from our positions up there. "This guy had his arm crushed and we called the medic and she got there and totally froze up. She could not even speak, all she did was stare. We had to call another medic from the next location to come over." - rig manager "I don't like any medics on my location anymore, they are lazy, no offense to you." - consultant He then goes on to tell me how she was lazy and never wanted to do anything including meetings. He tells me that one of the boys was injured and had to go to the hospital. She gets half hour down the road during transport and runs out of gas. Too lazy to even fill the tank apparantly. This is what we are up against up there. The first half a week or so at any location I went to consisted of casually "educating" the boys of what our role was up there and listening to their stories of "bandaids" gone wrong and letting them know that for every bad "bandaid" up there, there were several of us that were using the time to further their education and move on to higher goals. For the few bad lazy ones that are only in it for the money and not wanting to work for it, there are more that are not lazy and do not want to sit on there ass for the money. Once you let them know you are up there to look out for them and not sit on your ass for "easy money" you get accpetance and some respect. That's actually a nick name some of the guys would call us. Instead of "bandaid" it was "easy money". Keep in mind that there is a flip side to this aswell. There are a few folks up there that want you there and have their own stories of how the "medic" saved some ones ass. Quotes: "Your worth your weight in gold and you guys earn every cent when the shit hits the fan." "I wouldn't want to work on a site without having one of you guys there." "We don't want to see you working because if you're working that means some ones injured."

There is no majority because most people won't even bother telling you about these things. No matter what their reporting policies are, and no matter what they say at the "safety" meetings, it is frowned upon to report injuries and illness. They loose their safety bonus. If your a female attendant however, they will come see you about every little scratch and bruise :wink:

At a speedway at least you get to watch races. 6 hours is nothing. On the rigs expect to be sitting in your truck for a minimum of 12 hours per day with no one to talk to. There's nothing to look at either. Just trees. On the plus side there is lots of time to study. If you do it, only take the jobs where you are provided with your own "shack" (trailer) to live in. At least you will get to watch sattelite t.v. Don't expect any respect from the crews...too many have come before you to totally mess up our reputation. These companies have got to stop hiring people fresh out of their tests that have never seen blood before. Don't take less than $220 per day to start as an EMR. For jobs where you provide your own food expect another $50 per day for subsistence. You should never need to pay for your accomodation.

They won't feel better hiring some one with more training simply because it costs them more. It's all about $$....nothing more. They will get the lowest trained person available because they don't have to pay as much.

Field would be a perfect fit for the climbing lifestyle. All the beer climbs are in field...awesome ice climbing. Mega alpine objectives close by...tons of cragging at Lake Louise, Banff and Canmore. All that ice climbing and alpine climbing on the Icefields Parkway. Mmmmmmmm *drool* Golden would be o.k. You should look into Revelstoke as well. Rogers Pass is very close and has some amazing alpine climbing and mountaineering. Damn I love it here.

Who's the idiot that made the second one? We get it! The horse fell on the guys head, the horse fell on the guys head, the horse fell on the guys head, the horse fell on the guys head, the horse fell on the guys head. And what's with the music? Geez.

There are plenty of EMR positions to work 911 calls in smaller rural areas of Alberta. The pay is poor compared to industrial, so most seem to work the rigs where the real money is. I always see adds for 911 EMR employment, although they are always in small hick towns. Unfortunately, in the patch, there are alot of shitty EMR's that are only in it for the money. They freeze when some thing happens or totally f up. Those are the ones that give the EMR level a bad name. On the flip side, there are also alot of very good ones that are using it as a stepping stone, using the down time to study up, and saving thier money to further their education so that they can work on the bigger services. VS-EH, how do you figure that all "paramedic" courses are seperate from EMR? That's just not true here (in Alberta). You need to have EMR as a prerequisite to take your EMT (PCP) course in Alberta, and your EMT to take medic school. Also, in each course starting at EMR, you learn about skills for the next level up. How is that seperate? The question was about Canada as a whole, not Ontario itself. (I hear T.O. is the centre of the universe ..kidding, you can relax now)

This guy wins the wanker prize.

lol So what your saying is if the States were not where they are now, some other country would have invaded Canada long ago? I disagree. If the U.S. were not our neighbors then we might have actually have our own military to protect us :wink: To say Canada has not contributed is just plain ignorant though. Yes...we do fight in wars that your country starts and yes we do loose lives. As for the draft dodger comment. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Would you fight for a war you thought was unjust simply because some one told you too? People fight for what they believe in and on the other side people choose to not fight for what they do not believe in. To hate people for having beliefs different than your own is sad.

They keep us safe from...? I don't recall anyone trying to start any war with Canada in my lifetime. Canadians: Basketball Electron Microscope Anti gravity flight suit Heart pacemaker insulin Jetliner - The first commercial jetliner to fly in North America was designed by James Floyd Newsprint plexiglass walkie talkie television system and television camera telephone and telephone handset telegraph zipper robotic arm on the space shuttle :wink:

oh...and stay the hell away from our oil sands

The latter part of your posts smacks of ignorance. What a suprise Sad really. Hell, at least your draft dodgers were able think for themselves. Good for them. Maybe us North Americans should stop driving big ass SUV's and gas guzzling cars and exercise some self restraint. Maybe then your government wouldn't need to go after oil and spin doctor excuses to do so :roll: Let's see how many other people go on the defensive.

WOW what a heated topic. Let's not forget about all the other terrorist attacks world wide and all the other tragedies that happen around the world on a daily basis. Did you really think that the U.S. is immune to this kind of stuff? Do you really think you are invincible? Don't forget, the Roman empire was once a super power and look at them now. No one has dominated forever and looking at history no one ever will. 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 sick of hearing it. Everything is ever since 9/11 or before 9/11. Instead of 2010 A.D. is the new calendar going to be 10 9/11? It's not just the U.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents Get over yourselves and look at the world. Get your government to stop screwing with other countries and maybe it won't happen again. Good thing I am Canada...otherwise I might be labeled as a terrorist and be detained indefinately in a prison just for posting this :roll: Let's see if this post get's deleted.