Two North Shore communities continue to await a decision on which will host a new EMS base, and which will see their base leave town.
Superior North EMS and the City of Thunder Bay are still reviewing proposals from Schreiber and Terrace Bay to host a new, consolidated ambulance station, well over a year after the decision to merge the bases.
EMS chief Shane Muir said the city’s building and planning services divisions are working through the site evaluation process.
The service will consider that review alongside its own data on call volumes and response times.
Muir previously said he hoped to see shovels in the ground in 2023.
“We were really hoping to have this information back already, but the other departments are quite strapped right now,” he said in an interview earlier this month. “So things have kind of been [at] a stand-still.”
The wait means the communities retain their own bases for now, though Mayor Kevin Mullins of Schreiber said staffing challenges mean they aren’t always operating at full capacity.
“The positive side is each community has an ambulance of its own, but it's not much good if it's not staffed well,” he said.
Muir has expressed hope a new base with modern amenities could help address that, making work in the district a little more appealing for paramedics.
Thunder Bay’s city council, which oversees Superior North EMS, approved a plan to merge the bases along with two others in Nipigon-Red Rock last year over strong objections from area municipalities and First Nations.
The moves are intended to distribute resources more effectively as the service faces pressures like rapidly rising call volumes, staffing challenges, and millions in replacement costs for aging bases.
The new Schreiber-Terrace Bay base will house the same number of ambulances and paramedics currently stationed between the two communities, allowing the service to stagger its shifts and increase paramedic availability, Muir has said.
While that may improve service overall, it will bump up response times for some areas.
Superior North EMS has estimated placing the new station in a centralized area of Schreiber, for example, would increase response times for Terrace Bay by nearly 10 minutes.
Mullins said while he understands the pressures facing the service, he still needs to be convinced there won’t be unacceptable delays, and would prefer the two bases stay in operation.
“Whether that's economically reasonable, I don’t know — they’re saying it's not. The jury is still out with me on whether they can pull this off.”
Terrace Bay CAO and clerk Jon Hall agreed, but said the focus has turned to making the best of the situation.
“We were at odds with the consultant's report saying the timelines were negligible,” he said. “I think we, along with Schreiber, had local people provide examples where minutes really do count.”
“At the same time, SNEMS is making decisions moving forward, so we kind of have to live with those decisions.”
The service is believed to be considering five proposed locations put forward by Terrace Bay, and three or four by Schreiber.
Terrace Bay leaders have argued it’s an ideal location because it boasts the McCausland Hospital, a larger population, and slightly higher EMS call volumes.
Schreiber officials, meanwhile, say their township is a more central site for a new base serving an area stretching east to areas like Rossport, and about seven kilometres west of Terrace Bay.
Schreiber has proposed locations both along the highway and within the community, though Mullins expects little difference in response times either way.
“We’re such small communities. I mean, it would take 30 seconds to get to the highway even if it was located in Schreiber,” he said.
The successful community will be responsible for building the base, which SNEMS will lease out.
Hall called that an investment that’s likely to pay for itself in the long run.
Leaders in the two communities say while they’re each making their best case, they ultimately share similar goals.
“It’s competitive. Both towns want to host it,” said Mullins. “Both towns have got their pluses and… their negatives, and both have got our communities at heart… Both communities want the best possible solution for the people.”
He hopes the community that doesn’t get the EMS base will host a future paramedicine program.
Superior North EMS has reported success with its existing paramedicine initiatives, saying they help reduce 911 calls and offer improve care to patients.
