MLA sounds the alarm as P.E.I. ambulance wait times soar along with population

A Progressive Conservative backbencher blasted his own party in the legislature Thursday, asking why wait times for ambulance service on P.E.I. are so long — often more than 16 minutes.

Robin Croucher, the MLA for Souris-Elmira and himself a firefighter and former paramedic, asked P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane during question period what he is doing to alleviate the problem.   

"We have a problem, and it's not going away. In fact, ambulance response times are getting worse every day," Croucher said. "We simply do not have enough ambulances or paramedics to provide accessible and efficient coverage for our province." 

McLane responded that the number of calls to ambulances over the last five years has increased by about seven per cent a year. 

"With population expansion on P.E.I., we have certainly many more calls to deal with," the health minister said.

The volume of ambulance calls has risen by more than a third over the past five years, according to data from the province, and much more dramatically in the past 14 years.

The number of 911 calls requiring a response from paramedics has risen from 6,000 in 2007 to 19,919 in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, the Department of Health and Wellness said. 

As call volumes have leapt, the wait times for ambulances to show up after a 911 call have increased as well. 

Five years ago, in the first quarter of the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the average median response time for an ambulance across the province was under 10 minutes, at nine minutes and eight seconds. That means half of the responses took less than 9:08 and half took more.

However in the most recent figures on record, for the second quarter of the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the median response time across the province was 16 minutes and 29 seconds. It's lower in some places and higher in others: For instance, in Souris, the median response time in the second quarter was 28 minutes and 33 seconds. 

The above graph shows median ambulance response times across Prince Edward Island in the first quarter of each year given, measured in seconds. To get the number of minutes, divide by 60.

The problem is not enough paramedics, McLane said, which the province is trying to alleviate by paying tuition fees for students enrolled in paramedicine.

The health minister said some of those students will graduate in the spring of 2025, so help is coming. 

"We do have 33 paramedics enrolled in the primary-care program at Holland College; I believe 18 are set to graduate this year. Also, we have 11 in the advanced-care program. So, I think they're good numbers. They'll come in the spring," McLane said.