Ontario Paramedics Call for Increased Funding for Emergency Services
Paramedics across Ontario are calling on the province and local governments to increase funding for emergency services, to train and hire more paramedics and implement the solutions to the staffing crisis proposed by the frontline workers.
Niko Georgiadis, Chair of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ambulance Committee of Ontario which represents about 8,000 paramedics and communications officers across 24 services, says that "Ontario's paramedic workforce is in the midst of a crisis driven by chronic understaffing, burnout, and a growing volume of calls for emergency medical care." In a press release on January 22, the union points out that paramedics across the province are reporting escalating workloads and deepening mental health impacts. Workers stretched thin by mounting call volumes and short staffing are facing burnout and injuries and illnesses including post-traumatic stress.
In the Niagara Region, for example, calls to Niagara Emergency Medical Services increased by more than 60 per cent between 2020 and 2024 -- from 60,408 to over 100,000 calls -- while over the same period staffing grew by a net total of 61, a combination of paramedics and dispatchers. The consequences for patient care are matters of life and death. In 2017, dispatchers could assign a response unit within two minutes for life-threatening emergencies in 88 per cent of calls. By 2024 that figure had dropped to 54 per cent. For sudden cardiac arrest calls, assignment rates within two minutes fell from 90 per cent in 2016 to 33 per cent in 2024.
CUPE reports, "According to the Ontario Association of Paramedic Chiefs, in 2023 the province needed 1,388 paramedics but only hired 997. The number of paramedics needed has continued to grow as multiple paramedic services have reported record call volumes. At the local level, regional data and union reports show chronic understaffing has left some ambulance services unable to consistently meet service demands, with unfilled shifts and off-road units reducing availability for emergency responses." Workers forced to work overtime, short-staffed and foregoing meal and rest breaks suffer exhaustion and many leave, deepening the crisis.
Authorities are not increasing funding or involving paramedics and their organizations in working out solutions. Instead they are proposing increased regulation and the creation of a regulatory College of Paramedics that would standardize licensing across the country so that workers could more easily move between provinces. The proposal for a College was rejected by the province in 2016 and was recently revived by the Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus.
Workers reject efforts to divert from the human-centred solutions that are needed, to increase wages and improve working conditions and the hiring of more paramedics and mental health supports. This is what is needed so that paramedics can do their jobs safely and provide the emergency health care services that the society needs.
This article was published in
Volume 56 Number 18 - April 13, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/T560188.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca