A group of Nova Scotian paramedics studying at P.E.I.'s Holland College say a bureaucratic mix-up has left them scrambling to pay for their education.

"I think we have fallen into a crack in the system," said Matt Shaw, a paramedic who has worked for three years in the Glace Bay-New Waterford area.

"You've got nine Nova Scotians that are over here with a great financial burden that are trying to advance their skill set, to bring advanced care life support back to the communities where they came from in Nova Scotia."

Shaw says he and eight other paramedics from around Nova Scotia decided to take a leave of absence to go to Holland College's one-year advanced care paramedicine course, which began in September.

An advanced care paramedic can administer medications and more complicated procedures than primary care paramedics.

Advanced care paramedics can administer medications and more complicated procedures than primary care paramedics. (CBC)

Many of the students were counting on getting some funding through Employment Insurance and a provincial program called Fast Forward. The Fast Forward program is designed to allow people with an active EI claim to continue receiving benefits while studying.

Every Nova Scotian paramedic in this year's class was denied on the grounds that they'd voluntarily left their jobs, Shaw said, even though paramedics in previous years accessed money through both programs.

He was told by Fast Forward workers that their office made a mistake.

"Ultimately they had been interpreting the rules, so I guess the legislation, wrong for the past few years," Shaw said.

"That's why other people have gotten it, and now that they think they're interpreting it a different way, we are not entitled."

Rule 'has not changed'

A Department of Labour spokeswoman said people who apply for the Fast Forward program must first have an active EI claim. The program can recommend claimants to Service Canada, but has no authority over the decision.

"Applicants who are denied Employment Insurance benefits by Service Canada would not qualify for the program," Lisa Jarrett wrote in a statement. "This has not changed."

An Employment and Social Development Canada spokesman confirmed that someone who voluntarily leaves a job must have "just cause" to receive EI.

"Leaving employment to attend training does not normally constitute just cause," Josh Bueckert wrote in a statement. He directed some other questions about the Fast Forward program to the Nova Scotia government.

'Everybody knew'

But paramedics in the class said provincial workers implied they shouldn't have a problem getting EI through the Fast Forward program.

"They would coordinate with unemployment once the file was opened to endorse us and say, 'We know that they're leaving a job, but these are the circumstances and we endorse them to do so,'" student Matt Shaw said.

"It's annoying. It's just the fact that they've had no issues in the past years," said Benoit Tremblay, a paramedic from Kingston, N.S.

"I know a few people who are still getting their EI and the Fast Forward program from last year's class."

If they'd told me flat out 'no' before I started the course, I could have made other plans. - Richard Wood, student

Richard Wood said he was initially approved and then disqualified after receiving a payment of $1,300. Now he has to pay that money back. He's not clear on how the mix-up happened.

"Paramedics have been getting it for a few years now, and then this time around they decided to turn everybody down," Wood said.

"It was a system that everybody knew about."

'I didn't have a plan B'

The cost of the advanced care paramedic course is about $13,000, plus the cost of living expenses in P.E.I. Some of the course participants also are maintaining their homes in Nova Scotia, where they will return to work after the course.

"If it wasn't for my girlfriend back home, I would have had to leave the course, because right now she's helping me out with my bills back home," Wood said.

"If they'd told me flat out 'no' before I started the course, I could have made other plans.

"Once they took it away, I didn't have a plan B. I guess that would be on me — but I didn't expect it."