York Region Paramedic Services is donating one of its ambulances to help a community in Nunavut.
The decommissioned ambulance will get transported to Cambridge Bay through a partnership with Ambulances 4NU. The organization supports communities in Nunavut with ambulances, with many communities using old vehicles and lacking the resources to get them otherwise. Dignitaries gathered at the York Region Paramedic Services Headquarters July 17 for a ceremony for the donation.
Ambulances4NU founder John Prno recounted how some communities transport people via truck to get them to the health centres that will get them to the hospital. With costs for care higher in remote communities, he said these donations make a difference.
“These communities in Nunavut have no formal ambulance service,” he said. “We got lots of stories about people moving in the back of a pickup truck in the middle of the winter, minus 40-degree weather. All we wanted to do was do something a bit more civilized, a bit more humane than that.
“I just hope you realize just how much of an impact your donations have up there,” Prno added.
York Region has donated decommissioned ambulances going back to 2014, with ambulance vehicles in Ontario required to be decommissioned every five years or 250,000 kilometres of service. The region will trade in many of these vehicles for approximately $19,000 each but also donates up to two of the ambulances annually.
York Region Paramedic Services Chief Chris Spearen said donating ambulances continues to be important to the region.
“These ambulances have served our communities very well and I’m confident that they’ll continue to make a difference in these communities,” he said.
York Region Chair and CEO Wayne Emmerson said he is proud York Region can support this initiative.
“Ambulance donations such as these are an important way for York Region to contribute to other agencies and organizations who are also working diligently to support the health and wellbeing of others,” Emmerson said.
The ambulances donated are fixed up to ensure they are running as well as possible prior to donation, Marron said.
‘“We look for the highest qualify decommissioned (ambulances) we have,” Spearen said. “They get a fully mechanical look over.”
Prno added that ambulances in Nunavut do not get driven nearly as much as they will in Ontario, about a few hundred kilometres per year, and so can last a lot longer.
York Region general manager of paramedic and seniors services Lisa Gonsalves said she is pleased the region can support communities in Nunavut.
“Our decommissioned ambulances have been sent to communities around the world to help those in need, and helping those in need is what paramedicine is all about,” she said.
