Etobicoke asks city to increase funds for Toronto EMS, public housing

EMS calls have increased 40 per cent in a decade: Rahul Singh

Toronto.com
Feb. 15, 2019
Cynthia Reason

More frontline paramedics. Better arts funding. And much-needed cash infusions into public housing.

Those are just a few of the pleas for increased city funding that members of the Toronto 2019 Budget Subcommittee considered during public deputations in Etobicoke this week.

As Mayor John Tory listened on from the audience, dozens of local advocates took to the microphone at the Etobicoke Civic Centre on Monday, Feb. 11 to have their say about the proposed 2019 Capital, Operating and Rate Supported Budgets.

Thirty-year veteran paramedic Rahul Singh, who founded Etobicoke-based aid agency GlobalMedic, said he felt compelled to come out to “raise the alarm bell” about Toronto’s increasing demand for paramedic services in the face of underfunding.

“In the last 10 years, there has been a 40 per cent increase in calls for service...that’s 92,000 additional calls,” said Singh, who’s worked for Toronto EMS since 2002.

Meanwhile, over that same decade of time, Singh argued Toronto EMS has only seen its frontline staff increase by 220 medics -- an influx that took place between 2013 and 2016.

“Now, 2019 will be the third year in a row where, again, you don’t see any increases in staffing. And again, we’re falling well behind the curve.”

Singh said his fear is that the continuing shortage will lead to ever-increasing backlogs of emergency calls, which will translate into longer wait times for those who call for emergency help – 55 per cent of whom are aged 55 and over.

“It’s incumbent upon you to properly fund a service like this, because in emergency medical care, seconds count -- and when you don’t fund the system properly, those seconds get delayed, and people invariably suffer and sometimes die,” he said.

“That last ice storm we had, there were calls holding for hours at a time. And not just stubbed toes -- it was broken hips, heart attacks, strokes; it was critical calls that required care.”

Toronto Arts Council (TAC) director and CEO Claire Hopkinson was on hand to advocate for arts funding -- an investment she lauded as being a cost-effective means of delivering both economic development and social supports.

“The talented and innovative workforce needed to power our business sectors are drawn to Toronto because of our inclusive and creative neighbourhoods,” she said, noting that last year alone, TAC dispersed $18.4 million in grants to 170 local arts organizations and visual artists.

“Simultaneously, Toronto’s artists and arts organizations create local programming that engage youth, reach into underserved neighbourhoods and provide opportunities for meaningful participation.”

That sentiment was echoed by longtime Etobicoke resident Jerry Smith, a local arts advocate who has served on the boards of both Arts Etobicoke and Lakeshore Arts.

“Community arts is a catalyst,” he said. “Community arts builds bridges, opens doors and removes barriers. Community arts make a difference. Community arts are an asset, not an expense.”

As co-chair of Faith in the City -- an umbrella organization that represents more than 200 faith communities in Toronto -- Dr. Cameron Watts said the group’s main concern with the budget is its poverty-reduction strategies.

To those ends, Watts advocated for the allotment of more city funding towards the repair backlog at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) -- funds he suggested could be bankrolled by enacting a 4.02 per cent tax on all cannabis sales in the city.

“We, the residents of the city, are landlords to our neighbours who live there, and we are not operating as good landlords,” he said, quoting estimates that peg the backlog at $1.763 billion, while the city budget has earmarked less than $200 million towards those repairs.

For more information on the 2019 budget, go to www.toronto.ca/city-government/budget-finances/city-budget/