One of the obstacles to a merger of the Huron and Perth County EMS services was the difference in staff members employed by the two counties.
Huron C-A-O Brenda Orchard say Huron County has 577 full time equivalent positions while Perth has 347 and that prompted Huron County councillors to ask why Huron has so many more staff than Perth county.
But Orchard points out Perth County shares a lot of services and staffing with the city of Stratford. The City of Statford covers social services for Perth County. Orchard goes on to say the report back to Huron Council showed that Huron operates two nursing homes while Perth operates one and that amounts to a difference of 140 employees. There's a difference of about 30 employees in Public Works but Huron has 775 kilometres of road while Perth has 440. Huron County does the planning for nine lower tiers while Perth provides planning for four lower-tiers and that excludes Stratford and Huron has 30 library staff but in Perth the libraries are staffed by the lower tiers.
Orchard adds it's very difficult to make accurate comparisons between the two counties because of the way they're structured.
