Send a message to Premier Ford, the Minister of Health, your Local MPP, and local city/regional councillors
Premier Doug Ford, Sylvia Jones, the Minister of Health, and [insert local MPP name and local city councillors/regional councillors],
Paramedics, dispatcher, and logistics and support workers in Ontario are in crisis and Paramedic Services are strained to the breaking point.
The province did well to address the offload crisis but wait times have not disappeared entirely – they’ve only shifted.
Paramedic Services across the province cannot recruit or retain enough paramedics to keep ambulances on the road. This is most acute in Northern Ontario – but it’s an issue in nearly every service. The result is increasing response times, a growing burden on paramedics, and skyrocketing rates of mental health burnout and injury.
One in every 2.5 paramedics in Ontario has filed a WSIB claim for a workplace injury or mental health concern. Compare that to 1 in 7 firefighters and 1 in 12 police officers and you begin to get a sense of the trauma paramedics are dealing with.
It’s no wonder that there’s a shortfall of paramedics in the province each year. According to the Ontario Association of Paramedic Chiefs, Ontario hired 997 paramedics in 2023 but needed 1,388. The OAPC acknowledge that ambulances are not staffed due to this shortfall and it is only going to get worse.
When paramedics can’t respond urgently, it puts Ontarians lives at risk. In worst case scenarios, it leads to death.
I am writing to ask you to address this crisis. Ontarians deserve a system that responds when we’re in an emergency – and paramedics deserve safe working conditions and sustainable jobs.
I call on the Ontario government to increase funding to the sector and take all the necessary steps to address the crisis in Paramedic Services.