Paramedics in the Superior North EMS District are facing a crisis that threatens the safety of residents across Northern Ontario. Chronic short-staffing, excessive on-call demands, and a lack of investment from the City of Thunder Bay have pushed these frontline workers to a breaking point.
Many are on call 24 hours a day for days at a time, travelling long distances to respond to emergencies, often alone or with no staffed base nearby. Burnout is soaring, vacancies are growing, and communities are paying for emergency coverage they are not consistently receiving.
These workers have been sounding the alarm for over a year, but the City continues to refuse a bargaining mandate that addresses recruitment and retention. Paramedics have responded with a 97% strike mandate—a clear call for change.
A fair contract is essential to keeping medics on the job and ensuring reliable ambulance service across the region.
Northern Ontario depends on a stable and fully staffed emergency medical system. When ambulance bases sit empty, response times increase and lives are put at risk. Superior North paramedics are the backbone of rural emergency care, but they cannot continue working under unsafe conditions that the City refuses to fix. A fair settlement with improved wages, realistic on-call standards, and dedicated recruitment and retention measures is essential to protecting public safety.
Thunder Bay can choose to stabilize emergency care—or allow the system to crumble. Residents across the region have the power to demand better.
