Residents in northern Ontario community furious to learn they could lose ambulance service

Foleyet opposes losing ambulance Foleyet is outraged that to conserve resources for other areas, officials are considering ending ambulance service in the town.

Residents of the community of Foleyet, west of Timmins, are angry they might lose ambulance service.

The Manitoulin Sudbury District Services Board said it's strapped for resources and is looking at scaling down services in Foleyet for use elsewhere.

The service has been was taken away once before and locals fear they could be left isolated.

"We have called and utilized thee paramedic services many, many times," said Taylor Gervais, whose daughter has a heart defect.

"I wouldn't have relocated my family from Timmins here if there wasn't any paramedic services for my daughter."

In response, the district services board said other communities need service and it's looking at areas that can afford to have reduced services.

Foleyet has low numbers when it comes to emergency calls and is considering just having one trained paramedic.

"Part of the work the staff is going to do now is … dig into those 90 calls Foleyet gets every year," said Fern Dominelli, services board CAO.

"Can we get away with just a (paramedic) in that community?"

But Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas said this shouldn't even be a discussion.

"This is fundamentally wrong ... they're too isolated to be without two paramedics and an ambulance at all times," Gelinas said.

Residents are outraged, saying if the board goes this route, people would have to wait more than an hour for an ambulance from Timmins or Chapleau to get to them.

"There's no way we should allow these people to take the ambulance away," one person said.

"We won't stand for it, we're here to fight for the ambulance service and will take the steps necessary to ensure that our people are protected."

And Mary Lynn McConnery, of the local services board, said the move shouldn't be a consideration

"Please look at the lives and all of the thousands of lives that are moving out here," McConnery said.

"Why would you even consider this as an option?"

Dominelli said a decision hasn't been made and may take weeks or months to hash out.

"The next step may be do nothing, just to make that clear ... no decision has been made to make a change," he said.

The district services board will be discussing the topic at its April 28 board meeting.