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Investments in emergency care look to reduce ambulance response times in Simcoe

September 24, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Ontario government is investing $38.3 million in the County of Simcoe to connect more people to emergency care faster and increase the availability of paramedics and ambulances.

“Simcoe County is growing, and we need to ensure emergency services keep pace with that growth,” said Brian Saunderson, MPP for Simcoe-Grey. “This $38.4 million investment will help the County of Simcoe support its paramedics, respond to increasing demand and continue delivering the high-quality emergency care residents across our communities depend on. I want to thank our paramedics, health-care professionals and county partners for the important work they do every day.”

In Simcoe County, Ontario is increasing land ambulance funding by 9 per cent. 

This increase in base funding helps ensure municipalities address increased costs so they can continue to deliver high-quality emergency care.

This investment is part of the more than $1 billion in land ambulance funding Ontario is providing municipalities across the province this year, representing an average increase of 9 per cent from 2025.

In addition, to further reduce delays paramedics encounter when arriving at hospitals to transfer patients, Ontario is investing $800,000 in the County of Simcoe through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program to hire nurses and other eligible health professionals dedicated to offloading ambulance patients in hospital emergency departments.

The program allows paramedics to get back out into the community faster and respond to their next 9-1-1 call sooner, and has played a significant role in reducing ambulance offload times and increasing ambulance availability for 9-1-1 patients across the province. As a result of this investment and the collaboration between paramedics and hospital professionals, provincial ambulance offload time has been reduced by approximately 68 per cent since its peak in October 2022.

“Our government is making record investments to protect Ontario’s health-care system and connect people to the care they need, where and when they need it,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. 

“With provincial ambulance offload times declining by nearly 70% since 2022, this shows that our plan is working.” 

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