The Ministry of Health says it received the letter from Northwestern Ontario municipal leaders about the dire state of paramedic services, but it remains to be seen if it got the entire message.
The ministry has yet to say publicly if it would respond to one of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association’s main requests — that Northern land ambulance services be fully funded by the province.
Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA) president Wendy Landry, writing on behalf of the association, made the request in a letter to Health Minister Sylvia Jones earlier this month. Landry is also Shuniah’s mayor.
Full funding “will allow (Northern) regions to offer competitive salaries and benefits, upgrade outdated equipment and bases, and invest in workplace health and safety programs,” Landry said in the letter.
Currently, Northern ambulance departments like Superior North Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are currently funded by a combination of provincial and municipal money, with the latter component proportionally based on population.
In an email to The Chronicle-Journal, a ministry spokeswoman confirmed it received the association’s letter, but didn’t directly address the full-funding request.
Instead, the spokeswoman referenced $910 million the province has earmarked this year “to support . . . critical operation(s) and to increase the availability of ambulances across the province.”
She also noted the province increased last year the number of spaces in Ontario colleges for students wanting to train as paramedics to 300.
“Expanding the pipeline of talent for the future will help bolster the paramedic workforce and make sure emergency services are available to respond to emergencies,” the province said at the time.
Still, many land-ambulance services continue to struggle to fill significant vacancies.
Superior North EMS Chief Shane Muir said he could use at least 30 paramedics sooner than later. Part-time positions are the hardest to fill at the moment, Muir said on Monday.
Muir said his service, which responds to emergencies in Thunder Bay and surrounding municipalities and First Nations, has about 230 paramedics “on paper.”
But Muir said the number actually available to work is less than that due to factors like illness and stress-related leaves.
It remains a challenge, Muir added, for Northern land ambulance services to convince fresh paramedic graduates to work in the North, even if they completed their training here.
The Ministry of Health says students training to be a paramedic at Thunder Bay’s Confederation College, or at six other Northern Ontario colleges, can have their tuition and other costs covered “in exchange for a term of service in the community they studied in.”
