Improved Ambulance Service Coming To Communities Immediately North Of Saskatoon

Released on November 8, 2021

The Government of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) are pleased to announce enhanced ambulance service for communities immediately north of Saskatoon beginning this month. The ambulance service will be based in the community of Martensville.

“Our government is following through on this spring’s budget commitment of $6.57 million to enhance emergency medical services in Saskatchewan,” Martensville-Warman MLA Terry Jenson said on behalf of Minister of Health Paul Merriman. “As part of this commitment, we are providing $1.16 million in annual funding to the SHA to support enhanced ambulance services, address growing demand and improve response times for Martensville, Warman and other communities north of Saskatoon.”

“This funding will support the addition of one staffed ambulance for the area,” SHA Provincial Programs Executive Director Rod MacKenzie said. ”Since provincial funding was announced in April, the SHA has been studying historical need and growing demands for ambulance services, response times to and from various communities just north of Saskatoon, and demographics and growth patterns for communities in the area to identify the response base for the new service.

“This enhancement will provide improved EMS service to supplement first responder services to the area and communities such as Warman, Martensville, Borden, Dalmeny, Hepburn, Langham, and Osler.  “We appreciate that our medical first responders will continue to provide their valuable services to the entire area.

“We thank all of the communities and rural municipalities who participated in our consultations. We identified through those consultations that both Martensville and Warman would be excellent communities in which to base this service. “Martensville was chosen because it is more central to a slightly higher population of the area, decreasing the response distance and response times to a greater number of residents.”

The SHA will take a phased approach and start providing services 12 hours/day in November and an additional 12 hours/day will begin in March 2022. Medavie Health Services West is the EMS area service provider who will set up and staff the Martensville response base.

“We look forward to getting to work with the City of Martensville as quickly as possible to put the resources in place to begin operations and improve ambulance service to all of the communities in this area,” Medavie EMS Chief Gerry Schriemer said.

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