The City of Cold Lake is expressing concern over EMS response times after a presentation to council.
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During the April 15 Corporate Priorities Committee meeting, administration briefed council on the first three months of 2025 as Cold Lake Fire-Rescue responded to 21 medical-related requests for assistance.
A pace, which according to the city, could indicate a higher call volume than 2024, which saw 58 calls.
“The trends we are seeing are worrying, and we are making every effort to understand the level of service we ought to be provided, the level of service we are receiving, and whether there is a substantial gap between the two,” said Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland.
The city is concerned about the increased reliance on Cold Lake Fire-Rescue to respond to incidents requiring medical first responders and to provide operational assistance to EMS crews.
According to the city, trends show increasing response times with ambulances to Cold Lake dispatched from other communities.
“Our residents are calling 911 and wondering how long an ambulance will take to get to them – or if there’s even an ambulance close to the City to respond,” said Copeland.
The city says fire-rescue already responds to most motor vehicle collisions but are also being tasked with lifting patients into and out of ambulances, lifting a patient out of a challenging space, providing an extra set of hands to assist EMS staff, or simply to provide first aid and comfort in place until EMS staff are able to arrive at the scene
“We’ve noticed our firefighters are being asked to help more often, and while they are happy to help, we need to ask if we are picking up the slack here,” said Copeland.
Cold Lake council directed administration to research the issue and look into the city’s ability to bill the province for the provision of services when fire rescue is called in certain instances by EMS.
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