The $30 million investment's partial payoff

A recent multi-year investment plan, which includes funding for 99 new paramedics and support staff, has shown some benefits, but not yet fully realized.

The council-approved target demands that paramedics arrive on scene within eight minutes for at least 75 percent of CTAS 1 calls, which represent life-threatening emergencies.

In 2025, crews achieved this benchmark only 70.4 percent of the time, a decline from 75.1 percent in 2024.

An echo of Sydney's 2024 institutional buy-up

A growing and aging population, combined with healthcare system challenges, has strained resources and increased demand for emergency services.

These systemic issues contribute to increased travel times, making it difficult to consistently meet the stringent eight-minute goal for the most critical cases.

The report directly links this failure to external pressures , stating, "a growing population, aging demographic, and health-care system challenges" have strained resources.

Who is the unnamed buyer?

The report does not specify who is responsible for the strain on the system , but it is clear that the Ottawa Paramedic Service is advocating for updated dispatch metrics to better align with modern triage practices.

The service is now lobbying the Ministry of Health to revise the current standards, which do not account for the new Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) implemented in 2024.

This additional questioning inevitably increases call processing time, which has resulted in dispatchers falling drastically short of the two-minute notification standard.

What auditors flaggged in the May filing

The report highlights a complex picture of performance within the Ottawa Paramedic Service, with significant improvement in reducing "level zero" events.

Ambulances were unavailable for only 866 minutes in 2025, a staggering 92 percent decrease from the 11,372 minutes recorded in 2024.

This improvement suggests that strategies to increase fleet availability are effective.

Broader context

The report presents a mixed outcome for Ottawa's paramedics, with success in reducing ambulance downtime and meeting targets for most call types and cardiac arrests, but persistent struggles with life-threatening emergencies.

The discrepancy between dispatcher performance and provincial standads, complicated by a new triage protocol, adds another layer of complexity.

The service awaits the full impact of its investment plan while lobbying for updated dispatch metrics to better align with modern triage practices.