THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay’s city council is preparing for a consequential vote on EMS service for North Shore and Greenstone communities, with recommendations to close several bases continuing to cause concern in outlying communities.
Council received a 10-year “master plan” for Superior North EMS last year that includes those controversial recommendations, but wasn’t bound to implement them.
On Monday, city and EMS leaders will recommend going ahead with plans to consolidate bases in Nipigon and Red Rock into one, do the same for bases in Schreiber and Terrace Bay, and close a Beardmore base, redeploying its ambulance to Longlac.
Beardmore would retain a paramedic and a non-ambulance vehicle under the plan.
The recommendations drew concerted opposition from area communities, with leaders slamming the city over a lack of consultation.
The city, which oversees Superior North EMS, conducted further consultations in the district over the past year, a gesture district leaders mostly say they appreciate, but didn’t resolve fundamental concerns.
Superior North EMS chief Wayne Gates acknowledged it’s a tough transition for communities that have had their own ambulance bases for decades, but defended the moves as necessary – and looked to reassure residents there would be minimal service impacts.
“It is a big change for the community, but at the end of the day I honestly believe it’s going to actually provide a higher level of service for those folks,” he said of the Beardmore redeployment.
He offered similar assurances on the consolidation of the North Shore bases.
“When you look at the overall call volume and demand for these communities, it really is hard to justify having a station in each of [them], when we know one new facility will actually service both of those communities as well as the surrounding First Nations just as well.”
“We believe it’s going to have little to no impact on what the current response times are,” he said.
The consolidation reflects a need to redistribute resources as the paramedic service faces steeply growing demand, particularly in Thunder Bay, large costs for station replacement, and a worsening staffing crisis, he said.
The most serious Code 4 emergency calls to Superior North EMS increased by 34 per cent from 2015 to 2019, and overall call volumes are expected to increase by up to 50 per cent by 2030, while some district EMS bases respond to relatively few calls.
The Beardmore base responded to fewer than 80 Code 4 calls a year between 2017 and 2019, the master plan noted, around one every 4.7 shifts for paramedics.
Code 4 Returns, involving lights and sirens transport to hospital after a paramedic has assessed the patient, occurred just every 33 days for the Beardmore base in 2019.
“Beardmore analytics confirm the station is not performing well from a value-for-money perspective,” the master plan states.
Its “system busyness” was at 3 per cent or below in the years 2017 to 2019.
The four North Shore bases up for consolidation had system busyness levels ranging from 12 to 15 per cent in 2019.
The average system busyness across Superior North EMS operations is around 33 per cent.
The paramedic remaining in Beardmore is intended to partner with the primary care clinic there and work on a community paramedicine model including home visits, as well as responding to emergency calls.
The ambulance will be redeployed to the Longlac base, which saw a 30 per cent increase in 911 call demand since 2018.
Greenstone Mayor Renald Beaulieu is concerned about longer ambulance waits for travellers on Highway 11 and area First Nations, including Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek (Lake Nipigon Ojibway), Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek (Sandpoint First Nation), and Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek (Rocky Bay First Nation).
“Beardmore is a lower usage ambulance base, but a very important one, because we’re on Highway 11, we have all the Aboriginals in the area, and saving lives – I think there’s no measurement in that when it comes to money,” he said.
Without an ambulance in Beardmore, the nearest will be 45 minutes to an hour away in Geraldton or Nipigon, he said.
He’s relieved there will at least be a paramedic remaining in the community.
“It’s not the best option, [which] is to have a full-fledged ambulance base,” he said. “But I think eventually [people will] understand the system is trying to make things better for the citizens in the Beardmore region.”
When it comes to consolidating bases in Red Rock and Nipigon, separated by a 15 to 20 minute drive, the two communities have raised different levels of alarm.
Red Rock CAO Mark Figliomeni isn’t entirely convinced by assurances response times will remain stable.
“It’s just hard to see how that will really happen when you’re looking at consolidation of units and stations,” he said.
Mayor Richard Harvey of Nipigon said he’s less concerned about response times for residents there, and more for those in Beardmore and other Highway 11 communities.
“For our community, I’m not sure it will have a significant impact on response times,” he said. “We recognize there are challenges for EMS and things have to be done.”
Consolidating the two bases, which are in need of replacement, is expected to save $2 million in capital costs.
Red Rock has suggested a potential location for the new base at a former MTO site along the highway between the two towns.
Harvey indicated Nipigon is unlikely to partner on the capital project.
The Township of Schreiber has offered options for site selection and to partner on a new consolidated base, Superior North EMS reported.
Harvey said his concerns over the EMS master plan related more to what he called a “flawed process.”
Figliomeni noted district communities served by Superior North EMS have no say in its oversight.
“In essence, 13 members of Thunder Bay city council will vote on this situation with very little input from the regional communities… In my opinion, the whole structure of the EMS governance policy needs to be looked at.”
The City of Thunder Bay has legislated authority over Superior North EMS, despite the fact it also serves a dozen other municipalities and First Nations.
The city provides roughly 80 per cent of the agency’s budget, which fully funds city EMS operations and contributes an estimated $2.8 million a year to district operations.
The EMS work plan contains other recommendations Gates called important: lobbying the province to fund non-urgent medical transportation to free up paramedic and ambulance availability, advocating for increased federal funding for EMS bases that serve significant First Nations populations, and supporting a proposed Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) paramedic service.
