Who You Gonna Call? Emergency Medical Services in Winnipeg, Canada and Beyond
The Canadian Pacific Railway’s arrival in Winnipeg in 1882 caused a corresponding population explosion. Both the railway and the increased population created an immediate need for emergency medical transport (and care), a need that has prevailed in the city to this day.
Over the past century and a half, a myriad of providers – from the police department, to funeral homes, to city hospitals, to the Canadian Army, to taxi and tow truck companies, to private ambulance services, to a municipal ambulance service, and others – have provided emergency medical services to Winnipeg.
Is the current provider, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service under contract to the Manitoba government, the final answer? A look at how EMS has evolved throughout Canada, and even the world, suggests probably not. The challenge comes from whether EMS is managed as an emergency response service or as part of the health care system… and ultimately, who wants to pay for it.
Fasten your seatbelts, hit the strobes, crank the siren, and come along for a wild ride through crazy municipal politics, the powerful influence of strong community advocates, the evolution of crucial lifesaving technology, and the handiwork of dedicated professionals who have an unextinguishable desire to care for others in distress.
For those of you in Winnipeg, copies are now available at the Winnipeg Firefighters Museum: 56 Maple Street (Two blocks east of Main Street at Higgins Avenue). They’re open Sundays 10-2, or other times by appointment. Please call the museum at 204-942-4817 for further information.
For multiple copy orders, orders outside of Canada, and/or for those able to pick-up in either the Winnipeg or Vancouver-areas, please contact me for specific postage/delivery rates.
Organizing Events – Avoiding Risk and Promoting Safety, with Lynda J. Cannell. Western Legal Publications, 1999.
- A practical, “how to” guide on how to make special/sporting events safer for participants, and less risky legally for organizers.
- Western Legal was bought out by Canada Law Book, and they discontinued Organizing Events. Lorne Folick, et al, Sports and Recreation Liability Law in Canada (Thomson Reuters, 2017) provides a decent update on the subject.
We Hold Thee Safe, Firefighters Historical Society of Winnipeg, 2005.
- A history of the Winnipeg Fire Department from 1874 – 2005.
- It ends with the beginning of the merger of Winnipeg’s fire and emergency medical services.
- My newest book, Who You Gonna Call? Emergency Medical Services in Winnipeg, Canada and Beyond, captures the continued history, from an EMS perspective, of the next twenty-five years.
