Ontario Connecting More People to Faster Emergency Care

September 19, 2025

Investments in emergency care have reduced ambulance offload times by 65 per cent

City of Kawartha Lakes — The Ontario government is investing $11,063,476.00 in the City of Kawartha Lakes and County of Haliburton to connect more people to emergency care faster and increase the availability of paramedics and ambulances in the community.

“Investments in land ambulance services and offload nurses mean that families in the city of Kawartha Lakes and the County of Haliburton can count on faster, more reliable emergency care,” said Laurie Scott, MPP for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock. “By supporting our paramedics and reducing delays at local hospitals, our government is ensuring people get the urgent care they need, when they need it, closer to home.”

In the City of Kawartha Lakes, Ontario is increasing land ambulance funding by 14 per cent, bringing the province’s total investment in the region to $6,963,363.00 this year. Additionally, in the County of Haliburton, Ontario is increasing land ambulance funding by 9 per cent, bringing the province’s total investment in the region to $3,905,113.00 this year. This increase in base funding helps ensure municipalities address increased costs so they can continue to deliver high-quality emergency care. This investment is part of the almost $1 billion in land ambulance funding Ontario is providing municipalities across the province this year, representing an average increase of 8.7 per cent from 2024.

In addition, to further reduce delays paramedics encounter when dropping patients off at a hospital, Ontario is investing $195,000.00 in the City of Kawartha Lakes through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program to hire more nurses and other eligible health professionals dedicated to offloading ambulance patients in hospital emergency departments.

The program allows paramedics to get back out into the community faster and respond to their next 9-1-1 call sooner and has played a significant role in reducing ambulance offload times and increasing ambulance availability for 9-1-1 patients across the province. As a result of this investment and the dedication of health-care professionals, provincial ambulance offload time has been reduced by approximately 65 per cent since its peak in October 2022.

“Our government is making record investments to protect Ontario’s health-care system and connect people to the care they need, when they need it,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “Through these additional investments, we are providing paramedics and emergency departments with the tools they need to connect more people across the province to high-quality emergency care, faster and closer to home.”

To ensure urgent patients receive critical care sooner, Ontario is also continuing to implement the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) across the province. The system helps to better prioritize and triage emergency medical calls and dispatch paramedics sooner. The province has expanded the use of MPDS to Mississauga, Kenora, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Renfrew, Georgian, Kingston, Lindsay, Oshawa and Timmins and is accelerating progress to implement the system at the 10 remaining Central Ambulance Communication Centres across Ontario over a year ahead of schedule. Through Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government continues to take bold and decisive action to protect the province’s health-care system and ensure people and their families have access to high-quality care closer to home for generations to come.

QUICK FACTS 

  • The government’s additional investments into the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program over three years will help municipalities cover around 800,000 dedicated hours to support offloading ambulance patients in the emergency department.
  •    Currently over 300 patient care models led by paramedic services across the province are now approved to provide appropriate and timely care options for eligible 9-1-1 patients in the community, instead of in the emergency department.
  • To help increase the number of paramedics in the province, the expanded Ontario Learn and Stay Grant provides students studying in the first year of a paramedic program at select post-secondary institutions with funding for free tuition, books, compulsory fees and other direct educational costs. After graduating, students will be required to work in the same region they studied in, for a minimum of six months for every full year of study funded by the grant.
  • The Ontario government has helped more students who want to become a paramedic in Ontario by adding more than 300 student spaces in paramedic programs at provincial colleges across Ontario.

QUOTES

“We are quite pleased by the additional funding for our Paramedic programs. The land ambulance investment will help ensure our residents are receiving the attention they need in those emergency situations and will directly support our urgent healthcare needs. The continued funding for our Off-Load Nursing Program is also well-received. Our residents have noticed the improvements this program offers and it aids in getting our paramedics back out into the community to answer those 911 calls. This is a great example of the excellent partnership we have with the province, and we truly appreciate their support.” – Doug Elmslie, Mayor of the City of Kawartha Lakes

“The County of Haliburton appreciates the continued support for Paramedic Services by the Provincial Government, Minister Jones, and M.P.P. Scott. The increase for the 2025 Land Ambulance Services Grant helps to ensure that Paramedics will continue to meet the growing demands with high-quality medical care.” – Mike Slatter, Chief/ Director, Haliburton County Paramedic Service

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 

MEDIA CONTACT

Richard Ovcharovich
Legislative Assistant
Office of MPP Laurie Scott
Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock
705-324-6654
richard.ovcharovich@pc.ola.org