From Saddle Up to Screw Up: AHS EMS Leadership at the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth

We’re back. After a much-needed, several-month hiatus from the wheresmyambulance.com grind (life happens), we’re firing up the lights again. First, a huge thank-you to everyone who stuck with us, and to the wave of new folks who found us while we were off the air. Our Instagram community is now pushing 4,000 strong. You amplified stories, sent tips, and kept the pressure on. That support keeps this project alive.

A quick programming note: this piece is Calgary-centric, because the data led us here. But Edmonton and other zones, especially North Zone, aren’t off the hook. Those files are open, interviews are happening, and some of it is already deep in the planning stages. If you want to help us keep digging (and keep paying those delightful FOIP invoices), consider tossing a few bucks into the tank via our GiveSendGo: https://www.givesendgo.com/GC4M8. Every dollar helps us pry loose more documents and publish more uncomfortable truths.

Speaking of uncomfortable truths, a special shout-out to the town and county councillors who told us they read our work and then carried our numbers straight to AHS EMS. The response from “leadership”? We’re liars who manipulate data. Adorable. Here’s the part where we laugh, because the figures we publish are.... wait for it........ their numbers! We get them directly from AHS through formal requests. If accountability scares you so much that you have to accuse your own spreadsheets of betrayal, by all means, keep going. The only thing you’re exposing is how foolish you look, and how right we’ve been all along when we say leadership is the problem.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s get to the main event, the summer stress test that tells you everything you need to know about how this system is (not) run.

When we set out to examine how Calgary braces for the chaos of summer, there’s one perfect barometer: the Calgary Stampede. The “Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth”, and, for EMS, the busiest, sweatiest stress test you could dream up. Every July, the PEOs trot out in front of the cameras, talking a big game about “increased volume” and “extra demand” on the system.

And here’s the thing: if AHS EMS “leadership” were even remotely competent, the Stampede should be their Super Bowl. You’d expect months of preparation, careful staffing plans, resources lined up, contingencies ready, with the months leading up to the event showing clear signs of preparation. That would be the bare minimum of what any functioning EMS leadership team would do. So, to measure Calgary EMS’s ability to survive the summer onslaught, we didn’t start with Stampede week itself. We looked at the months leading up to it, because if leadership can’t even hold the line before the horses hit the track and the beer tents fill up, what hope do they have once the gates swing open?

So let’s talk about and examine relocation requests into Calgary. Or as crews affectionately call it: “flexing” because nothing says operational brilliance like stripping ambulances out of rural towns to plug holes in Calgary. Looking at the data, a chef’s kiss of consistency emerges. Year after year, since at least 2023, we see the same pattern: winter months (January through April) stay relatively calm on the flexing front… but once May hits? Buckle up. May, June, July, and August are when relocation requests shoot through the roof, like clockwork.

And who bears the brunt of this seasonal “leadership strategy”? The usual suspects: Airdrie, Cochrane, and Okotoks, the biggest suburban-rural communities in the Calgary Zone, conveniently located close enough for AHS to yoink their ambulances at will. Now, are these towns magically less busy in the summer? Nope. AHS EMS “Leadership” knows this. These towns scream the loudest about how destructive this practice is. And what does AHS do in response? They nod politely, smile, and then… flip them the bird while driving off in their ambulances. Efficiency? Community safety? Nah. Why bother, when you can just duct-tape Calgary’s holes shut with rural resources and call operational efficiency? The fact that in June 2025 Airdrie lost Ambulances to Calgary 48 times, Cochrane 33 times, and Okotoks a whopping 76 times (with another 68 in May) is peak efficiency for the brilliant minds that oversee the 3 ringed circus that is AHS EMS.

According to dispatchers at SCC (the folks actually forced to play this circus game and were gracious enough to sit down with us and spill the beans), “flexing” isn’t resource management, it’s a sadistic round of EMS musical chairs. Picture this: Cochrane loses an ambulance to Calgary, then a call drops in Cochrane. No problem, Airdrie will cover. But then Airdrie gets hit with two calls of its own… and suddenly, surprise! Zero ambulances left there.

Meanwhile, down in Okotoks, it’s a coin toss whether they lose one ambulance or both. When that happens, Diamond Valley gets dragged in to cover. Then Priddis is yanked over to cover Diamond Valley. And who covers Priddis? Absolutely no one. Thousands of square km’s, poof, uncovered. Bragg Creek? Redwood Meadows? Western Tsuu T’ina Nation? Yeah, best of luck to you. And does AHS care? Of course not. They’ll proudly wave the flag of their “dynamic, borderless system”, which, translated into plain English, means: “We’ll just send you a truck from Calgary or Cochrane, eventually.” That extra 20–30 minutes of drive time? For AHS, that’s just a minor inconvenience, like waiting in line at Starbucks. In this warped game of musical chairs, Priddis doesn’t just lose a chair. Priddis never even gets invited to sit down (by the way HAS LED TO NEGATIVE PATIENT OUTCOMES).

So why is this happening? We boiled it down to a three-point disaster.

1. Summer call volume.

Yes, more calls come in during the summer. Shocking, right? People go outside, do dumb things, and sometimes need an ambulance. That part isn’t really under “leadership’s” control. But what is in their control is whether every stubbed toe deserves a full lights-and-sirens response. And let’s be honest: AHS hasn’t met an ingrown toenail they didn’t think required a full-blown EMS convoy. Their unofficial motto? “You call, we haul.” Lawsuit paranoia runs so deep that the concept of triage might as well be written in Sanskrit.

If that’s really their position, fine, then add more ambulances. Oh wait… they can’t. Because the paramedics already working under them hate the job conditions so much they can’t even staff the fleet they currently have, let alone add extras. Bravo, leadership. Truly, the system has never fallen so far.

2. Staffing.

Speaking of paramedics, earlier this year we politely asked AHS for a breakdown of staffing levels, how often the fleet falls below minimums. Their response? A nice little invoice for thousands of dollars. Because nothing screams transparency like paywalls. Luckily, a friendly supervisor (and fan of wheresmyambulance.com) slipped us some dates we should check out. And folks, they’re grim.

On night shifts in Calgary, staffing levels have dropped as low as 69.6%, and in the entire dataset, staffing only cleared 90% twice. Twice! If that isn’t an indictment of AHS’s incompetence, toxic culture, and bargain-bin wages, we don’t know what is.

That’s the micro-level failure. But what about the macro? Surely leadership shines when you zoom out, right? Wrong. We sampled three years of data (March through June) and looked at funded hours versus staffed hours for Calgary’s transport units. On paper, things look like they’re “improving”:

• 2023: 88.3% of shifts filled

• 2024: 89.8% of shifts filled

• 2025: 92.25% of shifts filled

At first glance, you’d think, “Well hey, progress!” But look closer and the cracks become canyons. This “improvement” only holds up if you conveniently focus on Monday to Thursday, maybe Friday day shifts. Nights and weekends? Total collapse. We’re talking night shifts staffed as low as 69.6%, others at 85.3%. And here’s where the real sleight of hand happens: leadership gaslights the public (and probably themselves) by pointing to the overall averages. “See? Staffing’s up year over year!” they’ll crow, while ignoring the reality that half the system is circling the drain every Friday and Saturday night.

It’s like bragging about your GPA because you aced basket weaving, gym, arts and crafts, but you’re flunking math. The numbers are technically correct, but operationally meaningless. Calgary doesn’t get safer because Monday morning shifts are full; people collapse, crash, and call 911 at 2 a.m. on Saturdays too. So let’s be blunt: this isn’t progress. It’s a con game. AHS EMS leadership hides behind averages to cover up their failure to staff when it actually matters. It’s not just incompetence, it’s willful misrepresentation, dressed up as success. Or in plain English: world-class gaslighting from a leadership team running a dumpster fire and calling it a warm glow.

Now, should we ease up on them? Maybe toss in a little praise? Nah. Because if there’s one thing this toxic “leadership” team truly deserves credit for, it’s their favorite addiction: overtime. We’ve written about their overtime bender before (see: our blog post), but summer in Calgary Zone shows us the habit is alive and well. Looking at March–June for the past three years:

• 2023: 11,345 hours of overtime

• 2024: 14,201 hours

• 2025: 14,161 hours

That’s not a bump; that’s a full-blown dependency. If even half of those hours were worked evenly between PCPs and ACPs, that’s $1.1 million a month in overtime costs, in Calgary Zone alone. Let that sink in. Translated into 12-hour shifts, that’s over 1,180 shifts per month plugged with overtime… and they still can’t cover their vacancies. They are literally torching piles of money to mask their staffing crisis, while simultaneously driving paramedics deeper into burnout. It’s the EMS version of bailing water on the Titanic with a shot glass, except leadership is high-fiving themselves for how fast they’re scooping.

And here’s the kicker: all of this could be eased, not solved, but eased, if AHS EMS leadership treated their workforce with an ounce of respect. But that would require competence, accountability, and some baseline recognition that paramedics are human beings, not disposable shift-fillers. Instead, they keep doubling down on the same broken playbook, and letting the Alberta taxpayer pick up the bill for their incompetence.

And here’s the thing, there seems to be one data set that actually looked like it might be smiling on EMS “leadership”: the vacancy data makes the picture maybe less bleak right.? Well we’ll let you be the judge. Between March and June 2023, Calgary Zone averaged around 187 unfilled positions per month. In 2024, vacancies barely budged, sticking stubbornly around the 170 range. By 2025, yes, vacancies dropped, down to just under 110 by May and June. At first glance, you might think, “Finally, progress!”

But just when you think there’s a glimmer of progress, reality comes in swinging. Let’s look at sick time. In March to June 2023, AHS Calgary Zone averaged 6,853 sick hours per month. In 2024, that ballooned to 8,491. This year it dropped slightly, to 7,883. Sounds like an improvement, right? Except that’s still the equivalent of 656 shifts a month evaporating. That’s not a minor blip; that’s a second workforce quietly vanishing into thin air.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: how many of those sick hours are just paramedics saying, “You know what? Screw this dysfunction, I need to breathe before this place eats me alive.” When you’re running a system that hands out moral injuries like Halloween candy, people eventually check out to protect their sanity. It’s not just the workload, either. It’s the culture, the oh so toxic culture. Take for example this! We’ve lost count of how many times we’ve heard stories about a certain Calgary Zone Director, yes, the one who helped make us famous, gleefully handing out suspensions like 811 hands out “transport only” referrals. That brand of leadership-by-fear is a masterclass in how to nuke morale. Alas, when someone smells his cushy do nothing job being at risk in September it is hardly surprising is it?

And with morale in the toilet, where do you think paramedics’ mental health ends up? Right beside it. So they book off sick, because it’s the only way to survive a system that insists on grinding them down while pretending everything is fine. AHS doesn’t have a staffing crisis; it has a leadership crisis that keeps bleeding into every metric.

3. Hospital Hallway Waits

Ah yes, remember that shiny old promise? The AHS “new target” of clearing hospitals in 45 minutes or less. Straight from the horse’s mouth, we even dug up the dusty receipt: here’s the blog post.

So, how’s that going in Calgary? Spoiler alert: it’s not. In fact, not only is AHS failing, they’re failing with such flair that it almost deserves a standing ovation. Thousands of offload delays every single month, no rhyme, no reason, just an uncoordinated “we can’t get our act together, so we’ll fail in style, thank you very much.” And here’s the kicker: the government handed AHS a ministerial order to fix this. AHS’s response? Basically: “You’re not the boss of me.” They thumbed their noses, turned paramedics into hallway nurses the second they hit the doors, and left them to rot in purgatory beside patients who, in most cases, no longer even need active care.

Sure, a handful of patients might still need attention. But most are safe in a hospital, waiting around for hours anyway. Meanwhile, medics sit as hallway hostages, unable to respond to actual emergencies in their communities. Why? Because AHS EMS leadership can’t get over the boogeyman that lives rent-free in their heads: lawyers. Every operational decision seems dictated by lawsuit paranoia, not common sense. And so, instead of ambulances in communities, we get paramedics babysitting stretchers in hallways. It’s not patient care. It is liability management dressed up as leadership.

And if you thought hallway waits were just an occasional hiccup, think again. With thousands of units parked in hospital corridors every month, you’d hope, pray, that it’s only a small fraction of calls being affected. Right? Yeah… not so much. Take June 2025 as an example. Across Calgary Zone, there were 21,187 total events, including 911 calls, inter-facility transfers, and the odd fire standby. Not every one of those events involved a transport, and not every transport landed in an emergency department. But here’s the kicker: 5,382 of them were offload delays. That’s 25% of all events grinding to a halt in hospital hallways.

Let that sink in. A full quarter of the system isn’t functioning as EMS at all — it’s been hijacked to act as unpaid nursing staff for hospitals that can’t process their own patients. And leadership’s response? Shrug, smile, gaslight, repeat. So when we call AHS EMS leadership incompetent, this isn’t just us being dramatic. The data is literally screaming it. If one in four events ends with paramedics trapped in hallway purgatory instead of responding to actual emergencies, that’s not bad luck. That’s failure baked into the system by design. “Leadership” gets so upset that we keep calling their credentials into question, and openly call them incompetent, but this is why!

Okay, so we can all agree that when it comes to preparedness, EMS “leadership” leaves a little something to be desired. (And by “a little,” we mean everything.) So what did Calgary actually get to endure during those ten glorious Stampede days?

Call volumes that were off the charts. Calgary logged 6,751 events across 911, IFT, and “other.” That’s 31% of the city’s monthly volume from June. When the beer flows, the midway spins, and every tourist with a cowboy hat suddenly thinks they can ride a bull or go ass over tea kettle on an E scooter after one too many $15 beers. Stampede is basically the system’s final exam, and instead of studying, leadership showed up with a hangover, asked to borrow the Paramedic's pencil and hoped for the best.

With that kind of Stampede call volume, you’d expect strain on a system that already wobbles on the knife’s edge, and oh, did it deliver. According to one dispatcher we spoke to, AHS has gotten so “creative” with how they handle pending calls that a true Red Alert has practically been legislated out of existence. Problem solved, right? If you can’t measure failure, then technically you’re succeeding. Except, as they say, orange is the new red. And Orange Alerts? They were everywhere. On average, Calgary was racking up 80 Orange Alerts a day during Stampede. The peak? 193 in a single day. Break that down and you’re looking at about 8 alerts every hour, around the clock.

But here’s the kicker: leadership actually pats themselves on the back for this. In their minds, redefining failure into a prettier colour is “efficiency.” To anyone with eyes, it’s the equivalent of spray-painting a dumpster fire and calling it art. Before AHS EMS leadership lines up to give themselves backslaps, maybe they should pause and consider what position they’re actually in: a system drowning in alerts, with paramedics barely treadding water.

So, as we already mentioned, when volume spikes, demand surges, and the system is visibly straining, what does an on-the-ball leader do? Simple: get more resources into the breach. And AHS EMS? Well, they did just that. The “Leadership” team triumphantly arranged for a grand total of… 27 additional resources. Yes, you read that right. Twenty-seven extra transport capable units stood up for the Stampede. Ten days where nearly a third of the city’s monthly workload gets crammed into a week and a half. Here is how that was meant to shape up by the ambulances shift date, and scheduled hours!

We could almost call this impressive, good foresight, excellent strategic planning, a bold show of leadership. Almost. But “Leadership” forgot one tiny, crucial detail. The paramedics? They hate you. This isn’t a minor staffing hiccup or “oh well, things happen” scenario. This is not a staff versus management in living colour, there is always a degree of animosity no no no. Paramedics have handed leadership a resounding vote of non-confidence, thanks to years of toxic behaviour trickling down through the ranks, leaving morale buried under a metaphorical depth charge. Even the most carefully thought-out plans? Flat on their faces by the Paramedics showing “Leadership” their absence rather than their confidence.

Of the 27 extra ambulances they so proudly announced, only 21 were ever actually filled. Six units of effort wasted, pride intact, efficiency? Not so much.

Those were the extra resources, but surely management could at least manage their regularly scheduled ambulances properly, right? Not a chance. Remember that magical 92.25% staffing rate we uncovered earlier? You’d think they could at least maintain that benchmark during Stampede, or come close. Ha! These are the same people running AHS EMS, a leadership team whose incompetence seems to have no ceiling. Across the Stampede period, average staffing dipped below 90%, sitting at 89.4%, and that’s only because midweek shifts weren’t an absolute disaster. Nights and weekends? A free-for-all dipping as low as 85.3% for a 24 hour period. So much for being “ready for the Stampede.”

And that’s still not the worst part. Dig a little deeper into the night shifts, and things get truly disturbing. Remember those extra ambulances leadership so proudly “planned” for? The majority were allocated to nights, presumably because that’s when things get rough, right? That would make sense… if AHS EMS leadership actually understood their own data. But nights, especially over the weekends, were some of the worst staffed shifts, with staffing rates plummeting as low as 78.1%. That’s right: while the system teeters on the brink during peak demand hours, leadership’s brilliant solution was to assign more ambulances to shifts they couldn’t even staff properly. Classic.

But of course, the real stars of the Stampede weren’t the carefully “planned” extra resources or the almost-90% regular staffing. No, the ones who saved leadership’s bacon yet again were the diehards riding the discretionary overtime express and the casuals who stepped up to patch the holes. These folks spared “leadership” from what would have been an utterly humiliating disaster, one that would have finally ripped the mask off and exposed them for the toxic swamp creatures they are.

Year over year, both overtime and casual reliance have ballooned, with overtime topping out this year at a tidy 6,443 hours (with a final price tag of well over half a million dollars to the tax payer), a neat little 229-hour jump from last year. And what’s leadership’s grand strategy to thank the people literally keeping the system from collapsing? Easy: keep them underpaid, dangle insulting contracts, and hope they’re desperate enough to grind themselves into dust for a bit of overtime pay. Brilliant! Why pay people fairly when you can just exploit burnout as a staffing strategy?

So there you have it, another Stampede, another case study in how AHS EMS “Leadership” can turn a world-class event into a workflow autopsy. And remember: Stampede isn’t just a spectacle; it’s a benchmark. It’s the dress rehearsal that predicts the summer run. If the system buckles during the most predictable, most planned-for ten days of the year, you don’t need a crystal ball to guess July and August: you need a triage tag.

This year’s benchmark told us plenty. Relocations spiked like they always do, night shifts cratered, overtime ballooned, sick time stayed punishing, and hallway waits swallowed a quarter of all events. Leadership’s spin can’t hide that. And the reports from paramedics on the ground match the numbers: the summer is going exactly as you’d expect when the plan is burnout + luck + a fresh coat of PR paint. Crews are exhausted, coverage is brittle, and “efficiency” is being defined downward in real time.

We’ll keep pulling the receipts, telling the stories, and putting names to the failures, because patients and medics deserve better than a leadership team that treats averages like achievements and hallways like holding pens. If you want us to keep prying open the files, paying the FOIP bills, and amplifying the voices from the truck, please chip in at GiveSendGo: https://www.givesendgo.com/GC4M8. Every dollar helps us keep the lights on, the data clean, and the heat on “leadership.”

If Stampede is the barometer, this summer’s forecast is already in: hot, hazy, and full of avoidable storms, courtesy of a leadership team still insisting the weather is fine. We’ll be here, rain or shine, documenting it, in living color and maximum sarcasm.