City announces multi-year plan to hire more paramedics, EMS staff

The City of Toronto has announced a new multi-year plan to hire more paramedics and EMS staff to keep up with an increase in medical and emergency 911 calls. 

The plan will see the city hire 362 front-line paramedics, superintendents and support staff over the next three years, said Mayor Olivia Chow at a news conference Wednesday.

"Torontonians deserves a paramedic service that is quick to respond in an emergency because people cannot wait. A service that will be there for them when they need it," Chow said. 

Deputy Chief Melanie Jordison of Toronto Paramedic Services says the city is in desperate need of more EMS workers, especially in light of a recent rise in shootings across the city. 

"It's been a difficult year, lots of difficult calls. We have a number of measures to support our staff internally, but we recognize it has a toll on them," said Jordison. 

Last year, Toronto paramedics reported that in 2023 there were 1,200 occasions where no ambulances were available to respond to an emergency call. That was up from only 29 occasions in 2019.  

CUPE Local 416, the union representing 1,400 paramedics working in Toronto, has also reported high instances of burnout in recent years. 

"They are under a tremendous amount of pressure right now, and that certainly is something that we're we're trying to find a solution to and continue to be open to further solutions," said Peter Shirer, vice chair of CUPE Local 416, at Tuesday's news conference. 

The announcement comes just days after an incident where a 911 caller was put on hold for almost seven minutes while a teenage boy was dying from a gunshot wound — an incident city officials have promised to review. 

"I can't speak to the whole process of that call specifically," Jordison said at Tuesday's news conference. 

"But it's definitely something that we're reviewing."

Chow said she's hopeful that this new staffing plan will help reduce 911 call response times, adding the city is hiring more 911 call centre operators as well. 

The EMS staffing plan will cost around $52 million dollars to implement, but Chow expects that cost to be shared with the province through its Land Ambulance Services Grant. 

CBC News has reached out to the Ministry of Health for comment.