The price of new ambulances needed in Grey County has skyrocketed.
At its meeting on March 14, Grey County council unanimously approved a staff report that will see the county sole source the purchase of seven new ambulances that are needed for the county’s fleet over the next two years.
In his report to council, Director of Paramedic Services Kevin McNab, said the cost of new ambulances has risen dramatically in recent years.
McNab said over the past five years, Grey County had experienced an increase per ambulance of $118,800 - or 67 per cent. During the same period, wait times to receive new ambulance vehicles have jumped significantly to approximately two years.
As a result, McNab sought council’s permission to order seven new vehicles needed over the next two years – three in 2024 and four in 2025. Combined with four vehicles previously ordered – the county will now be waiting on 11 new ambulances.
McNab said currently in Ontario, there is a single company authorized by the provincial government to sell ambulances. He said with every municipality in the province that provides ambulance services ordering from the same vendor, it has created pricing and wait time problems.
“There is only one company we can get a quote from,” he said. “It really does create problems when we talk about purchasing bylaws.”
For the seven new ambulances, the county has received a quote of $295,882.46 per unit. McNab said the vendor won’t even guarantee that price – as it takes so long for the units to be delivered after they are ordered.
“We hope that by ordering these ambulances early there will be some savings,” he said. “I don’t see much choice on this right now. The lack of suppliers in the marketplace has definitely impacted us.”
County staff told council that on multiple occasions they have spoken to Ministry of Health representatives about the log jam created by having a single ambulance supplier in the province. CAO Kim Wingrove said the county suggested to the province that the sole vendor be established as a “vendor of record” with a guaranteed price or that more competition be approved in the marketplace.
The response so far from the province: crickets.
“There’s been no response that they might be taking action on this,” said Wingrove.
