The Ontario Government announced on Thursday that it would be increasing the province’s investment in the Superior North Emergency Medical Service (EMS) by 4%, bringing the provincial investment this year to almost $20 million.
The province says that since 2022, when ambulance offloading times were at their slowest, wait times have been reduced by 65%.
“We’re recognizing that costs are increasing for ambulance services. We want to keep pace with those costs, with the wages for the paramedics, and really the call volume as it increases over time,” Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Kevin Holland explains.
“Right now, the district is under some strain,” says Chief of Superior North EMS Shane Muir. “We have many stations spread throughout the district, and each one of those requires ambulance replacements, stretcher replacements, defibrillator replacements… Medical pieces of equipment are exponentially rising in cost.”
The $20 million invested by the province is simply meant to cover the base costs of running emergency medical services. Issues relating to staff burnout and other nuances are covered by separate, more specific funding programs.
One example is a $226,076 provincial investment into the Dedicated Offload Nurses program, which will help Thunder Bay hire more nurses for offloading patients from ambulances, overall reducing ambulance wait times.
