Are other Simcoe County municipalities subsidizing better paramedic service in Barrie?
Wasaga Beach Mayor Brian Smith raised the question at a committee meeting Tuesday at Simcoe County council, speaking about south-Barrie and area getting two new paramedics.
“Here we are again adding more ambulances to the Barrie area,” he said. “Unless something has changed, I believe Barrie still reaps the benefits of the best response times for ambulances in the county by far.”
Barrie Coun. Sergio Morales said there’s a formula to determining the county’s paramedic funding and deployment.
“Paramedic funding is allocated on a population basis and so dollars go where the density is, or will be,” Morales said. “Mayor Smith knows this, or should.”
Barrie has budgeted to pay the county $7.2 million this year for paramedic services, after the county recently shaved $225,000 from the city’s bill. This compares to the 2022 budget of just less than $7 million — although the in-year forecast for 2022 is $7.2 million. Paramedic service in 2021 cost Barrie $6.4 million.
All Simcoe County residents — in Barrie, Orillia and member municipalities — pay a weighted taxable property assessment calculation for paramedic services. This year it’s $33.16 per $100,000 of residential assessment value for all county households.
The county’s operating and capital budget for paramedic service this year is $67 million and it is adding six paramedics in all.
Barrie’s estimated average response time, according to the county, is six minutes and 28 seconds. The total county response time is 7:48, so the difference is 1:20.
County figures also show Barrie had 32 per cent of last year’s call volume — or 24,725 of 78,429 ambulance calls in all of Simcoe County.
Call volume is forecast to increase by 5.7 per cent this year.
Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall was unavailable to respond to Smith’s comments Wednesday, so Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson stepped in.
“Due to Barrie’s projected growth and population density, we will continue to work with our service partners, including the County of Simcoe, to deliver the best possible service in exchange for the tens of millions of dollars paid to the county by Barrie taxpayers,” he told BarrieToday through Nuttall’s office.
The county supplies to Barrie: land ambulances and paramedics, health and emergency services, Ontario Works, children’s services, social housing, long-term care (LTC), seniors services and community services, which includes homelessness. These services are supplied this way on direction from the Ontario government.
The total net amount of tax-supported city funding for county services in 2023 is $27 million.
Trevor Wilcox, the county's general manager of corporate performance, has said its operating and capital budget is not cast in stone.
“It should be noted that the budget approved by the county is simply a plan, and the county bills the city (of Barrie) based on actuals,” he has said previously. “If some services or programming are not used or implemented, then this is accounted for.”
County councillors heard Tuesday that given the increased call demand in the Innisfil and south-end Barrie catchment area, county staff are recommending the assignment of two new paramedics to the existing 12-hour rapid response unit in Alcona, creating a 12-hour transport ambulance.
Smith said he was concerned the deployment plan seemed to focus more on the county's south end, adding more ambulances to south-end Barrie and Bradford West Gwillimbury.
— With files by Nikki Cole
