County costs for EMS expected to rise over the next four years

The rising costs of Essex-Windsor EMS has got some county councillors asking questions about service delivery.

At last week’s regular Essex County Council meeting, director of financial services/treasurer Melissa Ryan presented a financial outlook for EMS which is managed by the county.

In her budget overview and master plan financial impacts, she laid out the projected operational and capital financial impacts of the EMS Master Plan, 2027-2030. 

“Over the current term of council, investments have been made to maintain legislated response standards, address increasing call volumes, and ensure continued delivery of high-quality paramedic services across the region,” said Ryan.

There has been a significant increase in the number of calls. In 2020 there were 55,513 and that jumped to 68,461 in 2025 which is an increase of 23.3 percent.

“Sustained growth in call demands places ongoing pressure on staffing resources, fleet availability and response performance,” said Ryan.

Kingsville Councillor Tony Gaffan, who was sitting in for Mayor Dennis Rogers, wanted to know if there was a breakdown of what type of calls EMS were responding to.

“I have heard over the past five to seven years, which shows the trend, that if you  take an ambulance you will get faster service. Whether or not we agree with it that is still the trend. Have we looked into what these calls are?” asked Gaffan.

EMS Deputy Chief Slawomir Pulcer said that the service does look at what the calls are and efforts are continually made to re-direct patients.

Lakeshore Deputy Mayor Kirk Walstedt had similar concerns as Gaffan and suggested that the province step in and set up some sort of triage clinic to lessen the load at local hospitals.

“Us putting on more units and adding more staff is just creating longer lines for the ambulances to unload,” said Walstedt.

Essex County CAO Sandra Zwiers admitted that the health care system is in crisis and that while the county can control some issues, it has limited options.

“Just throwing our own resources at it isn’t going to be the only thing that fixes this,” said Zwiers.

One of the resources the county is looking at is saving up for a new headquarters which will cost over $40 million, which under Ryan’s report, is a capital cost bared entirely by the county.

“I don’t think I realized we fully funded capital costs. Why are we fully responsible for an capital for something that serves Windsor-Essex-Pelee?,” asked LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche.

Ryan responded that once it is built, the new EMS hub will become a county asset.

“Over the years, there will be an operating cost that will be rent, so that is where we will get city and provincial contributions and we will tuck that into reserves,” said Ryan.

Essex County manages EMS while the City of Windsor is responsible for housing. As far as the region’s funding for EMS, the province pays 50 percent, the county pays 25 percent and Windsor/Pelee 25 percent.

Ryan noted in her report that that the total EMS budget increases over the past three years has been $10.67 million which is 19.7 percent. Cumulative projected incremental operating impact over the next four years is expected to be $23.8 million.

County costs for EMS expected to rise over the next four years

By Fred Groves