Amidst a worsening staffing crisis in Alberta’s emergency medical services, Edmonton paramedics are logging record amounts of overtime. Yet, dozens of shifts go unfilled each day and drops in service levels have become routine.
In 2024, Edmonton EMS staff worked 134,573 hours of overtime, an 81 per cent increase from 74,356 hours in 2021, according to data the IJF obtained through a freedom of information request.
The total cost of overtime for Edmonton EMS was nearly $10 million in 2024, up from $5.3 million in 2021.
Despite paramedics increasingly staying late or coming in on their days off, data shows that on average there were 40 unstaffed EMS shifts each day last year in the Edmonton Zone. Another roughly 33 ambulances were downgraded from Advanced Life Support to Basic Life Support every day in 2024, twice as many as in 2022.
“This explosion of overtime in hours and costs is reflective of a system in crisis,” said Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta and a paramedic.
Parker said the consistent annual increases in overtime show it is no longer a temporary fix to fill in unexpected gaps, but part of routine budgeting. This reliance on paramedics “working excessive hours” is fuelling a “dangerous cycle” of burnout and turnover among paramedics, he said.
“We've got chronic short staffing, forcing paramedics to work more overtime, leading to higher stress and physical exhaustion, and that impacts their mental health on the road. And all that does is it accelerates the burnout, drives more people out of the profession, which, in turn... worsens our staffing shortages, driving more overtime — repeat.”
A recent study published by the Parkland Institute surveyed Alberta’s allied health-care workers about their experiences on the job. More than other health professionals, paramedics reported they were considering leaving the industry or looking for work outside of their organization.
The study found paramedics “had the highest levels of stress and that their job was emotionally draining, and they also had the highest percentage of people who said they often thought about quitting,” Jenny Godley, lead author of the study, told the IJF.
There are several factors contributing to this dissatisfaction, Godley said, but issues around understaffing and pay were common concerns.
“Time off is denied because nobody wants to work, and most days, half of the resources aren't staffed due to book-offs and sickness. Mental health is in a crisis at all-time high, and supervisors continually push employees past their breaking point. We are on the verge of collapse, in a ‘have’ province, and we don't even recognize it,” said one paramedic quoted in the study.
Another paramedic told the researchers they were afraid for the future of EMS, and that as more people leave Alberta to practice elsewhere or exit the industry, the quality of paramedics “is declining rapidly.”
Kristi Bland, communications lead for Alberta Health Services Edmonton Zone, said the agency continues to recruit for paramedic positions, while also ensuring efforts are made to retain staff.
“AHS EMS hired 420 new staff members last year, including 296 paramedics. Of those new paramedics, 164 were hired in full-time positions, 129 as casual and three paramedics hired in part-time roles,” Bland told the IJF in an email.
She also said that EMS response times in Edmonton continue to improve.
Data from AHS released through a freedom of information request shows that hiring has struggled to keep up with attrition in Edmonton EMS. AHS hired 12 new regular full-time paramedics in 2024. Thirteen regular full-time paramedics in Edmonton quit or retired.
Though an additional 21 casual paramedics were transferred to full-time positions last year, and dozens of casual and temporary employees were hired, Edmonton EMS had between 93 and 123 vacant positions in any given month in 2024. As of February, AHS employed around 1,000 paramedics in the city, about 30 per cent of whom are casuals.
Parker noted that the amount of overtime hours covered by existing staff last year is equivalent to about 60 full-time paramedics. The impacts of these staffing problems on workers could already be seen in the overtime trend in 2021, he said, and it “didn’t get any better. There is no policy improvement.”
Kyle Warner, press secretary to the Minister of Hospital and Surgical Health Services, said Alberta’s government has undertaken several key initiatives to support EMS staff, including introducing two new grant programs as part of the Rural Health Action Plan, launching a standing committee that provides recommendations to improve the EMS workforce, and creating a new organization to oversee emergency care.
“To better support Alberta’s health care system, emergency medical services are transitioning from AHS to a newly established provincial health corporation under Acute Care Alberta. Expected to be fully operational later in 2025, this move will strengthen support for frontline EMS employees by improving coordination, increasing access to resources, and fostering a more focused operational framework,” Warner said in an email.
