On March 23, 1999 the province announced that effective January 1, 1999 the province would share 50 per cent of "approved costs." It was agreed that LAISC would work on determining "approved costs." In order to do this the following Guiding Principles have been developed and will be applied.

1. The Ministry, Upper-Tier Municipalities, and Designated Delivery agents (UTMs/DDAs) want to work in partnership and are committed to providing all information necessary to build a full understanding of the actual costs incurred as the province delivered the service, and when municipal levels of government deliver the service.
2. AMO and the province will work together to finalize input on a template for approved costs ("funding template") which will be submitted to the government for its consideration. It is the Ministry’s intent to fund its share of Land Ambulance Services on a global budget basis.
3. Pre-assumption service levels and other previous typical Ministry funding circumstances will be used as the basis for determining part of the "approved costs" funding template.
4. When approved by the government, the funding template will be used as the basis for ministry funding.
5. All UTMs/DDAs will be provided with the funding template to facilitate their capital and operational planning and budgeting processes.
6. UTMs/DDAs will provide plans for land ambulance services that will be reviewed consistently against the funding template.
7. Business cases will be developed to support any request for additional ministry funding, in the context of the provincial/municipal budget processes. It is necessary to ensure that the funding is relative to the pre-assumption service level. Assessment of requests for additional funding will be jointly reviewed between the UTM/DDA and the Ministry.