About

In Canada, Emergency Medical Systems (EMS) systems operate in a variety of forms, ranging from volunteer first responders to paid Critical Care Transport Paramedics. These EMS services may be operated by volunteer groups, private-for-profit providers, Fire Departments, hospitals, local or provincial/territorial government.  With services provided and coordinated from such a broad base of sources, the challenge has been one of finding common ground for coordinated activities.  EMS provider groups have been challenged to work together without viewing one another as the ‘competition’, and to provide a credible national voice for EMS which will be heard across the country at all levels of government.

In1993 a group of Canadian EMS leaders met to discuss the expectations of EMS in the Canadian health care industry. It was in these early meetings that this visionary group determined a need for a blue print that would chart the future for this industry. As a result, in 1995 a national EMS conference was held in Regina, Saskatchewan called “Future Shock”. This was the first time that EMS leaders from across Canada met to discuss the development of a strategic plan that would define the role of EMS as well as a method to encourage and nurture the EMS profession. At this first conference, the EMS leaders in attendance agreed to work together on the identified goals and to meet again the following year. In 1996, this national group of EMS leaders met in Toronto at a conference called “After Shock”.  At this conference the EMS leadership recruited the expertise of individuals familiar with the changing demographics in our country and they specifically examined the future of the aging “baby boomers” and the lack of sufficient health care resources to tend to the needs of this sector of the population. The conference attendees were also informed that as a result of an aging population there would not be a sufficient population pool to train the required number of paramedics by the year 2016.  It was decided that a blue print for the future of EMS was required but in order develop this document a national EMS voice would first have to be established.

Under the leadership of Chief Steve Rapanos (Edmonton EMS), the Emergency Medical Service Chiefs of Canada (EMSCC) was incorporated in 2002 as a national forum for information gathering, policy development, and coordinated action by the leadership of Canada’s EMS systems.  Its’ membership was drawn from all types of EMS systems across the country, with voting membership open to those who actually operate EMS systems, large and small, and associate membership available to those who operate in EMS systems in a supervisory or managerial capacity, but who are not the senior officers of their respective services.  The EMSCC envisions Canadian EMS as a mobile health care service, existing at the centre of the community, and reaching into many aspects of community life and community services.

In February 2007, the EMSCC, released its’ blue print for the future of EMS in Canada that was called “The Future of EMS in Canada:  Defining the Road Ahead”. It is better known as “The White Paper” and has defined a national strategy for EMS which embraces six key strategic directions:

• Clear Core Identity: Who and what EMS is, clearly and consistently.
• Stable Funding: Ensuring the consistent availability of those community resources which are required in order to provide high quality EMS services.
• Systematic Improvement: The EMS system must be open to change, and directly accountable for performance in a complex and ever-changing environment.  It is not enough to say that EMS is doing a good job; EMS must be prepared to prove this, regularly, consistently, and transparently.
• Personnel Development: Paramedics are one of those rare and wonderful groups for whom learning never stops.  EMS must ensure that both education and training of staff are sufficiently robust to enable both personal and professional growth for paramedics, as well as the highest quality of care, embracing all new and appropriate technologies in order to provide maximum medical benefit to each patient.
• Leadership Support: Just as we no longer put just anyone in the back of an ambulance, we must also ensure that those responsible for the day to day operation and planning of each EMS system have the specific knowledge and skill sets necessary to operate an EMS system at maximum performance.
• Mobilized Health Care: As health care in Canada changes and evolves, EMS must change and evolve along with it.  EMS is no longer simply a medical transportation service; there are increasing numbers of places in the world where both the role and the scope of practice of paramedics have evolved to provide definitive primary care outside of traditional clinical venues, and paramedic practitioners with the knowledge and skills required to provide such care.

The EMSCC has had three presidents in its short history:

• Chief Steve Rapanos (former Chief of Edmonton EMS) EMSCC President from 2002 to 2004
• Chief Tom Sampson (former Chief of Calgary EMS) EMSCC President from 2004 to 2006
• Chief Bruce Farr (current Chief of Toronto EMS) EMSCC President from 2006 to present

With the guidance of the current 20 member EMSCC Board, that represent each province and the territories, it is obvious that the EMSCC collective approach to fostering high quality EMS in Canada has already met with considerable success.  A national forum for EMS has been created, along with a highly credible national ‘voice of EMS’ which is beginning to influence all levels of government in ways that, merely a decade ago, would have been regarded as ‘daydreaming’, and all of Canadian EMS benefits, either directly or indirectly, as a result of these activities.