"We are on red alert"—few statements evoke more indifference within AHS EMS. Supervisors say it, and EMS crews just shrug. This got us thinking: how can the true meaning of a Red Alert be so lost on everyone? It’s a thought-provoking mystery, but the indifference is hilariously captured in a video we found on the Facebook page of one of our biggest critics: watch here.
Check out the whole thing or skip to around the 3-minute and 30-second mark. The video highlights that the folks running EMS systems, especially Alberta Health Services, just don’t seem to care. This indifference becomes so ingrained that it turns into a chronic condition—almost like a case of "We Don’t Give a Damn" that’s resistant to treatment. Why should EMS crews care about the dwindling number of available ambulances if their supervisors—or their supervisors’ supervisors—don’t? It’s a prime example of leadership failure, and it only seems to hit home when it becomes a liability for the government, as AHS EMS found out in 2022.
The bitter pill to swallow is that this government knows all too well about the dysfunction in the EMS system. Our premier made this crystal clear back in 2018 (check it out here). Let’s quote her directly: “Few things are more frustrating than being stuck in a system that can’t change or won’t change. That describes the way Alberta Health Services (AHS) runs ambulance service.” Fast forward to today, and what have paramedics been subjected to? A seemingly endless parade of negative news stories about the system’s decline, a documentary highlighting how the powers that be spectacularly failed, and a mass exodus of seasoned professionals who just couldn’t bear to languish in the mess anymore. And if that’s not enough, full-time staff are bailing to work part-time or casual, waving a big red flag at senior leadership and saying, “Yep, this is all on you!”
Can EMS Leadership really be the villain here? Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at this document, which lays bare the short-sightedness of the EMS Leadership team.
It is impressive the level of incompetence that would be required to believe that no growth is anticipated for EMS when even then Red Alerts were shifting from rarities to common occurrences. Don't take our word for it, though—go back and watch the CTV documentary. Furthermore, in a decade, how much inward migration from other provinces and immigration from around the world has occurred, all while the opioid crisis worsened and the baby boomers aged? Does Royal Roads University offer a master’s degree in strategic planning? Here’s the thing: I can hear my detractors now, “This is from ten years ago!” Point taken. Tony told the Airdrie council that their strategic planning extends this far, so your critiques have fallen flatter than believing Stampede vacancies are due to vacation time and not sheer ineptitude.
Remember the good old days when, come summer, casual employees scrambled for those coveted 90-less-a-day contracts in metro areas? Fast forward to today, and guess what? Casual employees are now the big winners, while full-time staff are left with managers who seem to treat them like parts in a machine that’s in dire need of an overhaul. This machine started smoking years ago, caught fire halfway through COVID, exploded in 2022, and now resembles a smoldering heap of rubble. Maybe they should have changed the oil, but they don't even know how to efficiently do that with their own ambulances.
Managers wanted a system that ran at optimal efficiency; however, an EMS system should ideally operate at a level of utilization that ensures there is adequate capacity to handle peak demands and maintain high service quality. When utilization exceeds this threshold, the system becomes overburdened, leading to longer response times, increased stress on staff, and ultimately a higher risk of service failures. Over time, persistent high utilization can strain resources, degrade performance, and increase the likelihood of system breakdowns (Heizer & Render, 2021; Lipsky, 2018). Although there isn’t an agreed-upon metric for what that utilization should be among respondents examined, there needs to be some room to allow for fluctuations in volume (Gov1).
There’s what’s recommended, and then there’s what AHS EMS management actually does. To avoid adding more ambulances to the system, AHS spent millions on a computer system designed to run the EMS system at peak efficiency.
What we can take from this is that for years, AHS EMS ran their system without any buffer. The endless complaints about paramedics being treated differently—spoiler alert: not in a good way—serve as a perfect example of this mismanagement in action.
While EMS management floundered spectacularly—as expected—the province’s career fire departments seem to have turned EMS’s epic fail into their own win, particularly in Calgary. They capitalized on the system’s disarray to lobby the city for more funding and recruits. As EMS struggled with retention—let alone recruitment—fire departments expanded their numbers, partly by highlighting EMS’s shortcomings as a key reason for their own funding boosts. The real kicker? A chunk of that expansion came directly from EMS ranks, not to mention what was siphoned off by the police (CalgaryHerald).
This is a stark contrast to CFD leadership and the union, which have been vocal about their needs. Meanwhile, EMS leadership seemed to respond with a profound silence—almost a nod to the infamous “silent leadership” style that paramedics have become so familiar with. At least it was better than outright lies and gaslighting. In Calgary, we've seen the ranks of the fire department grow alongside the city’s needs, while EMS’s attempts at expansion have been met with largely similar silence as our former Chief’s leadership style.
One can only presume that this disparity arises when an employer both says and acts like they care about their staff, rather than pushing them toward burnout faster than Dale Earnhardt met the wall at Daytona.
To address these issues, Price Waterhouse Cooper was hired to ask paramedics what needed to be done better, yet their questionnaire was nothing short of a joke—a cringeworthy display of woke vanity that was completely out of touch with the loud and clear complaints from paramedics across the province. The issues? Underpaid, under-respected, under-appreciated, overworked, overburdened, and overly burnt out. Honestly, someone could’ve saved a small fortune by just handing over a copy of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and calling it a day.
In summary, it seems like AHS EMS management has been operating on autopilot with a "No Plan" plan for years. They’ve turned a system in constant chaos into a well-oiled machine of dysfunction, all while collecting a paycheck and serving up lies and platitudes about their excellence as the system routinely buckles and fails. Their strategy of squeezing every ounce of efficiency out of the system until it snaps like a rubber band—while simultaneously neglecting basic needs—has been nothing short of spectacular. The irony is so thick, you could cut it with a scalpel when you consider how many times that elastic band has actually snapped, only for them to keep breaking off smaller and smaller pieces.
Danielle Smith nailed it back in 2018 with her assessment of the system’s stagnation. Fast forward to today, and we’re not just stuck in the same mess but have somehow piled on even more drama. AHS’s fixation on optimization has created a system hell-bent on driving as close to the red line as possible, guaranteeing that any capacity surge would break the system. They underestimated the capacity surge, and the provincial demographic trends made fools of them all long before COVID could showcase their incompetence.
Meanwhile, other emergency services have capitalized on EMS’s failures. Calgary’s fire departments have leveraged EMS's dysfunction to secure funding and resources, turning a bad situation into a golden opportunity. AHS EMS management let fire departments feast on our funding because of ‘increased demand,’ but the prescription given was the wrong one. One way or another, taxpayers are footing the bill; if only they realized that the clown show at EMS headquarters meant that help would often arrive in a fire truck instead of an ambulance.
And who could forget Price Waterhouse Cooper’s misguided attempt to 'fix' things with a questionnaire so out of touch it might as well have been designed by a caffeinated squirrel?
The entire system resembles a three-ring circus—where the ringmaster is MIA, the clowns are running the show, and the audience has long since lost interest. They keep getting caught failing at their jobs, and we’ve been more than happy to go public with it. If there were any remaining doubts about AHS EMS management's ability to run a tight ship, consider this: the ship's already sunk, and now they’re busy stealing the fine china before scrambling for life jackets. It might be time for a full overhaul—if only the current crew knew how to steer the ship in the first place. Perhaps it's past time to do as the government suggested and show some of these managers the door, but to date, we’ve yet to see more than one single manager in this bloated bureaucracy shown anything but their biweekly check.
This post isn't the big news we've still got planned to drop, but it’s a way to keep our readers engaged and our contributors contributing. Every negative interaction between a supervisor or management and paramedics has the potential to inspire someone else to reach out and ask if they can join the conversation. This is the environment they’ve created.
So, if you're reading this from a zone other than Calgary, we see you, and we want to hear from you! We might not know the ins and outs of your areas like we do with Calgary, but this is an open invitation for frustrated paramedics from Edmonton, North, Central, and South Zones to reach out at Ambulanceman4@gmail.com. Let’s collaborate on a post that reflects your experiences and concerns!
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