RAINY RIVER — Over $21 million in new funding is going to two understaffed paramedic services in the northwest.
“Our goal is to get to … a (full) number of paramedics,” Deborah Ewald, chair of the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board, told Newswatch.
On Monday morning, $15.8 million for the Kenora District Services Board and $5.7 million for the Rainy River DSSAB for ambulance services was announced in a media release issued by the office of Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford.
The social services boards are responsible for running ambulance and land-based paramedic services across their respective catchment areas.
The paramedic shortage in the region is “critical” and “of grave concern,” said Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association president Wendy Landry last October, when she called on the province to fully fund ambulance services in northern and remote communities.
“We’re having just a really hard time recruiting people,” said Ewald, who is also mayor of the Town of Rainy River.
Any additional funding will only help with getting more paramedics to the region, she said in an interview Monday.
“At the present time, we’re trying to recruit paramedics because we’re short paramedics and so this money will help to fund the operations of the existing service as well as (improve) the recruitment so that we can be back up to the normal standard that we’re supposed to be at.”
The staffing issue is not new, as in 2022 the union representing paramedics in Kenora called on all levels on government to support systemic changes to address rapidly falling numbers of new paramedics in the region.
“They do a really great job, they really do,” Ewald said of the region’s existing paramedics. “We’re happy to get any increased funding that we can, no matter for what.”
“Our government’s targeted investment for emergency services in Kenora and Rainy River is ensuring faster ambulance response times, more paramedics, and better access to critical care in our communities,” Rickford was quoted as saying in the release.
The funding announcement comes more than a year after the Rainy River DSSAB made the “difficult decision” to close the EMS base in Emo in order to keep its other bases open.
At that time, the president of the paramedic union there said they were understaffed by almost 40 per cent.
Back in January, the KDSB’s chief of emergency medical services told Newswatch its paramedic service — which covers a wide area including Kenora, Red Lake, Ignace, Pickle Lake and Sioux Lookout — was “about 20 per cent short” of the number of paramedics it needed.
Union officials representing paramedics said better pay would go a long way to help with the shortage in those communities.
Ewald said there are currently bases in the Rainy River district — such as the one in Emo — that are only running when there’s enough staff. During down times, she said, coverage is provided by bases in Fort Frances, Atikokan and Rainy River.
That, she said, puts additional strain and stress on existing paramedics.
The province said the money is part of almost $1 billion in land ambulance funding flowing from Queen’s Park to municipalities Ontario-wide this year, which, according to the media release, is an average increase of 8.7 per cent over 2024 funding levels
