06/15/2026
OTTAWA PARAMEDICS SEE SIGNIFICANT DROP IN ‘LEVEL ZERO’ INCIDENTS IN 2025
The Ottawa Paramedic Service spent less time at “level zero” in 2025, as paramedics didn’t wait as long to off-load patients in the hospital emergency rooms.
However, a new report shows paramedics missed the council-approved response time targets for life-threatening calls last year
The 2025 Ottawa Paramedic Service annual report shows the paramedic service spent 866 minutes at “level zero” last year, down from 11,372 minutes in 2024 and 52,995 minutes in 2023.
The report shows over the past four years, the number of minutes paramedics spent at “level zero,” with no ambulances available to respond to calls for service in the community, have dropped by 98.8 per cent.
“Although there has been significant improvement, there should never be time when a paramedic crew is unavailable,” says the report by Ottawa Paramedic Chief Pierre Poirier.
According to the data, paramedics spent less time waiting to transfer a patient to the care of staff in an Ottawa hospital emergency room.
The industry accepted performance target to transfer patients to the care of a hospital is 30 minutes at the 90th percentile.
Poirier says council has invested in the paramedic service after 73,000 minutes at “level zero” in 2022.
“Ultimately, the answer should always be there. We’re going to continue to work on that,” Poirier told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa at Work with guest host Chris Holski on Friday.
“How we got there, first and foremost was support from our city council. We had an investment plan that was approved and we’ve hired over 140 staff over this term of council. City council also said that my mandate was to improve our response times, and this is a significant part of that.”
Poirier says the service has also had collaboration with hospitals to address paramedic wait times in the emergency departments.
“The hospitals have improved the triage at the hospitals; we’ve been part of those processes and we’re really proud of the achievement that’s occurred over the last several years.”
In a post on social media, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said he was “incredibly proud” of the paramedic service.
“Since 2022, level zero events have dropped by almost 99 per cent. That means far fewer situations where no ambulance is available to respond,” Sutcliffe said.
“Over the past few years, the service has added more than 140 new staff, strengthened rural coverage, and continued to improve response times across the city.”
PARAMEDIC RESPONSE TIMES
While there were fewer “level zero” incidents with no paramedics available for service, the Ottawa Paramedic Service did not meet its response time targets for life-threatening calls.
Paramedics responded to life-threatening calls within 8 minutes 70.4 per cent of the time in 2025. The council approved target is within 8 minutes 75 per cent of the time.
“This shortfall is primarily attributed to a growing population, aging demographic, and health care system challenges,” the service said.
“The Council-approved 2024-2026 Ottawa Paramedic Service Investment Plan included 99 new paramedics and support staff positions. The operational benefits of the added resources have not yet been fully realized.”
Paramedics met the council-approved response time for CTAS 2,3, 4 and 5 calls.
The Ottawa Paramedic Service responded to 128,012 calls for service in 2025, up from 121,461 calls in 2024. There were 175,991 responses by paramedics last year, up from 173,053 responses in 2024.
By: Josh Pringle
CTV News
