Sask. NDP blasts province for ‘shocking’ ambulance delays

The NDP says response gaps found in early 2025 are unacceptable for public safety.

Once again, the provincial NDP is calling out the Government of Saskatchewan over its health care record.

On Thursday, Saskatchewan NDP MLA Keith Jorgenson pointed to an incident in Regina from January 2025, in which he said that local ambulance crews were stretched so thin that they stopped picking up residents altogether.

“People were actually phoning back to cancel their 911 calls and requests for ambulances because they were tired of waiting and had decided to drive themselves to the hospital,” Jorgenson told reporters.

“This is absolutely shocking and it shows how this government has driven health care absolutely into the ground.”

Jorgenson said his party became aware of the incident through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. He went on to claim that the incident wasn’t an isolated occurrence, as he told reporters he’s heard similar stories from across the province.

“We’ve seen this in Saskatoon all the time, where people call 911, no one shows up,” he said.

“Sometimes for pretty disturbing situations where the ambulance doesn’t show up - not because the ambulance drivers aren’t trying to keep people safe, but because there’s just so many calls and the hours are so backed up that they’re not able to offload.”

The Government of Saskatchewan said both it and the SHA are committed to ensuring “timely” emergency medical services, though it didn’t address the specific claim about last year’s incident.

“The 2026-27 budget includes an increase of more than $14 million to protect and enhance EMS across Saskatchewan by improving response times, reducing workload pressures for paramedics and emergency medical communications staff, and supporting more consistent service delivery across the province,” the government wrote in its statement.

“To support recruitment for EMS services, our government expanded training seats by 66 per cent for primary care paramedics and is providing training bursaries for EMS providers as well as training and licensing support for emergency medical responders.”

The provincial government went on to say that every ambulance call is triaged, and the closest available ambulance is deployed when someone calls for service.