Further to the same question, there are a number of municipalities in Canada where the paramedic service is administered through the fire department: Winnipeg, Lethbridge, and Strathcona County in Alberta. Those are the examples that spring to mind.
An interesting situation happened in Strathcona County, where all firefighters are trained as paramedics and they do provide the paramedic service, with funding through the Alberta Health Services. In Strathcona County the provincial health jurisdiction looked at it and determined that firefighters did not get first-level priority. So although they were paramedics as well, they didn't get access to the H1N1 inoculation. The strange thing that occurred, which is what I'm talking about, is the confusion that had Strathcona County had separate paramedic and fire units, the paramedics would have got it and firefighters would not have. Because they were one unit, administered out of the same department, no one received it. Again, this is why the guideline is very unclear, and we have a problem.