A new $4.4-million land-ambulance station in Terrace Bay will help ongoing efforts to recruit paramedics to the service as well as provide a bright spot for the community’s downtown, the department’s chief said on Tuesday.
“It’s going to be brand-new, with living quarters and a gym,” said Superior North EMS Chief Shane Muir. “So we also hope (Terrace Bay-based paramedics) will choose to live in the community,” Muir added.
The Highway 17 station, to be built and owned by the Township of Terrace Bay, is to be up and running sometime next year beside an existing provincial building. Eight full-time paramedics will be based there under a 24-hour operation, Muir said.
The City of Thunder Bay will rent the facility on behalf of Superior North EMS under a 30-year lease, “followed by a month-to-month tenancy until a new lease agreement can be negotiated and finalized,” Muir said in a followup email. Superior North EMS is a division of the City.
The new “district-hub” ambulance station, which is to include three, drive-thru ambulance bays, will also serve the surrounding communities of Jackfish, Schreiber, Rossport and Pays Plat First Nation, a news release said.
Once the new facility is operational, existing ambulance stations in Schreiber and at Terrace Bay’s McCausland Hospital are to be taken out of service.
The new station represents some good economic news for Terrace Bay, which in the wake of a mill closure recently saw the addition of a new Highway 17 rest-area facility for truckers.
About 230 paramedics are on Superior North EMS’s regional roster. Like similar services across the country, burnout is a regular occurrence and recruitment is a constant challenge in what Muir describes as “a young person’s job.”
“We are making regular hires every year,” Muir said. “Everytime we get to a place where we’re in good shape, life happens.”
