Investments in emergency care have reduced ambulance offload times by 68 per cent
Waterloo Region — The Ontario government is investing over $40 million in Waterloo Region to connect more people to emergency care faster and increase the availability of paramedics and ambulances in the community.
“Waterloo Region has shown that the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program works and I am so pleased that our government is increasing the investment again to land ambulance funding,” said Jess Dixon, MPP for Kitchener South-Hespeler. “We continue to ensure paramedics spend less time waiting in hospitals and more time responding to calls in our community. I’m especially thankful to our local paramedics, nurses, and health-care teams for the work they do every day to keep families here safe.”
In Waterloo Region, Ontario is increasing land ambulance funding by 26 per cent, bringing the province’s total investment in the region to $38.4 million 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 more than $1 billion in land ambulance funding Ontario is providing municipalities across the province this year, representing an average increase of 9 per cent from 2025.
In addition, to further reduce delays paramedics encounter when arriving at hospitals to transfer patients, Ontario is investing $1.5 million in Waterloo Region through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program to hire 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 collaboration between paramedics and hospital professionals, provincial ambulance offload time has been reduced by approximately 68 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, where and when they need it,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “With provincial ambulance offload times declining by nearly 70% since 2022, this shows that our plan is working.”
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 in the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program over three years have helped municipalities cover more than 1.6 million 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.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES