Alberta
Province adding 22 ambulance crews including 1 in Red Deer
Adding new EMS supports to improve response times
Record investments will build a stronger, more flexible and innovative system for emergency medical services (EMS) with better access to care and shorter wait times.
Alberta’s government promised that help is on the way for Albertans and the province’s health system. By hiring more staff, putting more ambulances on the road and strengthening mental health supports for front-line workers, Alberta’s government is delivering on that promise.
“We are adding new ambulances and front-line staff and investing in solutions now and into the future to make sure ambulances arrive as fast as possible when Albertans call 911 for a medical emergency.”
The funding boost also supports implementing Health Care Action Plan priorities and recommendations made by the Alberta EMS Provincial Advisory Committee to improve EMS response and the work culture for EMS staff.
Alberta has the best front-line health care workers in the world, and Budget 2023 will put the right supports in place to ensure Albertans get the care they need, when and where they need it.
“Budget 2023 delivers the needed support to the front line and adds more resources to implement the Alberta EMS Provincial Advisory Committee recommendations. The additional funding will help ease worker fatigue and provide more mental health supports to improve the work environment for all EMS staff.”
Adding EMS staff and more ambulances
To improve EMS response time, Budget 2023 invests in adding staff and boosting the number of ambulances on the road. The funding increase will add EMS crews to staff 10 more ambulances in Edmonton, 10 in Calgary, one in Lethbridge and one in Red Deer during peak hours this year.
As part of the ongoing work to improve the central dispatch system and implement the EMS advisory committee’s recommendations, Alberta’s government will provide more than $1.5 million to hire and train additional staff and conduct a review of EMS available resources and how they are used in communities.
Supporting EMS workforce
Front-line staff and community partners asked for more supports to create better work environments, as reflected in the provincial advisory committee’s recommendations. Budget 2023 delivers funding to improve scheduling practices to allow for more breaks, more flexibility in the length of shifts and opportunities to take time off, in addition to providing for more training and development opportunities.
Nearly $1 million will go towards boosting mental health supports for EMS staff across the province. A $3-million investment will address paramedic fatigue in rural communities by adjusting work hours and shift schedules as part of the AHS EMS hours of work initiative.
“This funding increase enables aggressive action on our priority of improving emergency response times. We will hire more staff, increase hours of ambulance capacity, expand partnerships with other community supports and deliver innovative projects. This is about getting Albertans the care they need, where and when they need it.”
EMS-811 shared response, inter-facility transfers and treat and refer
Alberta’s Health Care Action Plan is helping to speed up EMS response times and free up highly trained paramedics from non-emergency calls and transfers. Additional funding will go towards the EMS-811 Shared Response program that transfers calls from Albertans with non-urgent conditions to registered nurses with Health Link.
All these actions will reduce EMS response time by empowering paramedics to focus efforts on urgent calls and diverting them away from situations when their level of care is not medically required.
Medical first response supports in rural communities
Medical first responders provide life-saving care in rural and remote communities until an ambulance arrives. Budget 2023 invests in supporting medical first response and implementing the EMS provincial advisory committee’s recommendations to add capacity and provide additional training and equipment.
Budget 2023 secures Alberta’s future by transforming the health care system to meet people’s needs, supporting Albertans with the high cost of living, keeping our communities safe and driving the economy with more jobs, quality education and continued diversification.
Quick facts
In 2023-24, Alberta’s government is providing $723 million in operating funds for EMS, an increase of $138 million to support EMS priority actions, including:
- $47 million for additional EMS capacity to put more ambulances on the road, hire additional paramedics and emergency communications officers, and create dedicated inter-facility transfer capacity in Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer.
- $24 million for recruitment and workforce initiatives and supports, including training programs and mental health supports for front-line staff.
- $24 million to continue initiatives that were implemented last year such as the 19 additional ambulances in Calgary and Edmonton, and enhanced scheduling changes made in high-priority stations around the province to reduce paramedic fatigue.
- $21 million for ground ambulance contract changes, increased mileage and fuel, including for air ambulance/air ambulance supports and other operational pressures from the increase in the number of events.
- $7 million to support strategies to enhance the EMS system, such as enhancements to the medical first response program, public education and response, and a review of the ground ambulance resource allocation policies and capacity.
- Almost $7 million to support other initiatives such as clinical improvement initiatives like expanding the vital health response program to the south zone, which will make it possible for paramedics to provide life-saving heart medication in the event of a heart attack, and expanding the mobile integrated heart program to support community paramedics across the province.
- $3 million for the EMS-811 Shared Response program.
- $3 million for other initiatives related to implementing recommendations.
- $2 million for a project related to air ambulances.
- Budget 2023 provides $196 million in new EMS funding over three years to hire more staff, put more ambulances on the road and implement recommendations made by the EMS advisory committee and the EMS Dispatch Review Report.
- In addition, $15 million over three years will fund a new capital program to purchase more ambulances and related equipment.
Canada’s wealth is based on its success as a trading nation. Canada is blessed with immense resources spread across a vast country. It has succeeded as a small, open economy with an enviable standard of living that has been able to provide what the world needs.
Canada has been stuck in a situation where it cannot complete nation‑building projects like the Canadian Pacific Railway that was completed in 1885, or the Trans Canada Highway that was completed in the 1960s. With the uncertainty of U.S. tariffs looming over our country and province, Canada needs to take bold action to revitalize the productivity and competitiveness of its economy – going east to west and not always relying on north-south trade. There’s no better time than right now to politically de-risk these projects.
A lack of leadership from the federal government has led to the following:
- Inadequate federal funding for trade infrastructure.
- A lack of investment is stifling the infrastructure capacity we need to diversify our exports. This is despite federally commissioned reports like the 2022 report by the National Supply Chain Task Force indicating the investment need will be trillions over the next 50 years.
- Federal red tape, like the Impact Assessment Act.
- Burdensome regulation has added major costs and significant delays to projects, like the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project, a proposed container facility at Vancouver, which spent more than a decade under federal review.
- Opaque funding programs, like the National Trade Corridors Fund (NTCF).
- Which offers a pattern of unclear criteria for decisions and lack of response. This program has not funded any provincial highway projects in Alberta, despite the many applications put forward by the Government of Alberta. In fact, we’ve gone nearly 3 years without decisions on some project applications.
- Ineffective policies that limit economic activity.
- Measures that pit environmental and economic objectives in stark opposition to one another instead of seeking innovative win-win solutions hinder Canada’s overall productivity and investment climate. One example is the moratorium on shipping crude through northern B.C. waters, which effectively ended Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal and has limited Alberta’s ability to ship its oil to Asian markets.
In a federal leadership vacuum, Alberta has worked to advance economic corridors across Canada. In April 2023, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba signed an agreement to collaborate on joint infrastructure networks meant to boost trade and economic growth across the Prairies. Alberta also signed a similar economic corridor agreement with the Northwest Territories in July 2024. Additionally, Alberta would like to see an agreement among all 7 western provinces and territories, and eventually the entire country, to collaborate on economic corridors.
Through our collaboration with neighbouring jurisdictions, we will spur the development of economic corridors by reducing regulatory delays and attracting investment. We recognize the importance of working with Indigenous communities on the development of major infrastructure projects, which will be key to our success in these endeavours.
However, provinces and territories cannot do this alone. The federal government must play its part to advance our country’s economic corridors that we need from coast to coast to coast to support our economic future. It is time for immediate action.
Alberta recommends the federal government take the following steps to strengthen Canada’s economic corridors and supply chains by:
- Creating an Economic Corridor Agency to identify and maintain economic corridors across provincial boundaries, with meaningful consultation with both Indigenous groups and industry.
- Increasing federal funding for trade-enabling infrastructure, such as roads, rail, ports, in-land ports, airports and more.
- Streamlining regulations regarding trade-related infrastructure and interprovincial trade, especially within economic corridors. This would include repealing or amending the Impact Assessment Act and other legislation to remove the uncertainty and ensure regulatory provisions are proportionate to the specific risk of the project.
- Adjusting the policy levers that that support productivity and competitiveness. This would include revisiting how the federal government supports airports, especially in the less-populated regions of Canada.
To move forward expeditiously on the items above, I propose the establishment of a federal/provincial/territorial working group. This working group would be tasked with creating a common position on addressing the economic threats facing Canada, and the need for mitigating trade and trade-enabling infrastructure. The group should identify appropriate governance to ensure these items are presented in a timely fashion by relative priority and urgency.
Alberta will continue to be proactive and tackle trade issues within its own jurisdiction. From collaborative memorandums of understanding with the Prairies and the North, to reducing interprovincial trade barriers, to fostering innovative partnerships with Indigenous groups, Alberta is working within its jurisdiction, much like its provincial and territorial colleagues.
We ask the federal government to join us in a new approach to infrastructure development that ensures Canada is productive and competitive for generations to come and generates the wealth that ensures our quality of life is second to none.
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Devin Dreeshen
Devin Dreeshen was sworn in as Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors on October 24, 2022.
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