Quebec buys emergency medical aircraft to meet growing needs

Pilot Neil Garthwaite walks up to an ORNGE air ambulance service helicopter at their base in Toronto on Tuesday, December 13, 2022. (Chris Young / The Canadian Press)

Quebec is buying additional aircraft for emergency air transport to meet the growing need for air ambulance services. The government currently has just four emergency aircraft, which are often all used at the same time.

Last summer, the government purchased a second-hand Challenger 650 aircraft from Bombardier, but it is not due to enter service until summer 2026. The aircraft must first be medicalized and have a transfer ramp installed for patients.

Another contract was signed in December with Bombardier for two aircraft of the same type. Delivery is scheduled for May 2027, but work to adapt them to medical needs will have to be carried out after acquisition.

Over the last five years, there has been an increase of around 38 per cent in the number of emergency air transfers, according to coroners.

Following two deaths in less-than-ideal circumstances involving air ambulance transport, Julie-Kim Godin and Francine Danais indicated in their report last summer it was “obvious” that the air fleet needed to be increased.

They recommended that the fleet be upgraded as soon as possible to enable faster emergency air transfers of patients, and that the replacement of obsolete aircraft be sped up.

The Ministry of Transport also stated that it was currently analyzing the replacement of the Dash-8 aircraft, whose main mission is to provide scheduled medical transport services, such as the transport of patients whose condition has been stabilized to designated centres for treatment or examinations. Around 5,000 users benefit from this service every year in Quebec.

Medical staff from the Évacuations aéromédicales du Québec program also received training last spring in the aircraft used by carriers under the ministry’s back-up contract.

“From now on, this training will be carried out annually for each aircraft model of the carriers covered by the succession contract, so that the medical teams can familiarize themselves with their layouts and carry out exercises,” said the ministry in an email.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French March 26, 2025.