My question is for the Premier. Last year, paramedics in Ottawa set a new record, but it’s not a good one: 1,806 times the Ottawa paramedics hit level zero. There were no paramedics available to respond to calls for more than 73,000 minutes. Paramedics spent 93,000 hours at emergency rooms in off-load delay.

The city is requesting provincial funding to help alleviate the off-load delay problem at Ottawa’s backlogged emergency rooms in our hospitals. Will the government step up and provide the funding Ottawa needs to keep more ambulances on the road?

The off-load delay at the Ottawa Hospital means that paramedics are waiting two and a half hours at the emergency room to get back on the road. For two consecutive years now, the Ottawa Paramedic Service has failed to meet the legislated response time of six minutes for sudden cardiac arrest. Last year, they only hit their legislated requirement 48% of the time.

Mr. Speaker, imagine watching your loved one die of a heart attack right in front of you because there’s no ambulance available to come.

Will the government do the right thing and get Ottawa the resources it needs to keep paramedics on the road responding to 911 calls?