The Newfoundland and Labrador flag has been lowered to half-mast outside the St. Anthony town office. (Submitted photo)

Anger is brewing on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula in the wake of a government decision to move an air ambulance service to Labrador.

About 400 people rallied at Charles S. Curtis Memorial Hospital in St. Anthony on Friday, denouncing the government's decision to move an air ambulance team to Happy Valley-Goose Bay. They described it as payback for a recent byelection that sent a Liberal to the provincial legislature.

St. Anthony Mayor Ernest Simms said the government's decision is an effective betrayal of the region, which elected a Liberal candidate last fall in the district of the Straits-White Bay North.

"This is just another kick in the teeth in my mind," Simms told CBC News, who added he was "100 per cent" sure that politics played a role in the air ambulance decision.

Participants at Friday's rally included area residents, students and hospital staff.

Demonstrators said they are worried about what impact the move will have on patients who need emergency treatment.

Speaking earlier with CBC News, Simms said members of the governing Progressive Conservatives have warned him that some promises are off.

"We've been told that, you know, because the Liberals were elected there, then things were going to slow down. You know, I talked to several ministers in other areas and they told us not to come back looking for more money."

Pressed to identify the ministers, Simms declined. He said, though, he may identify them if he does not get satisfaction from government in the coming weeks.

Simms said the statements fly in the face of the tone that Premier Danny Williams set on the Northern Peninsula in the past.

"Myself and Trevor Taylor will reward the people of the Northern Peninsula for what they've done," Williams said during a 2003 speech, referring to the former cabinet minister who had staged an unprecedented political upset for the PCs in a 2001 byelection.

Simms said he wonders what has become of that promise.

"If this means not forgetting us, then I'd rather that he forgot us, if that's the case," he said.

Simms noted, meanwhile, that most voters in the St. Anthony area of the Straits-White Bay North had actually backed the Tory candidate.