Heather Wright/The Independent

There could be a new $10.8 million paramedic headquarters in Lambton.

The idea to consolidate the administration, which had been based at Lambton Meadowview, operations, logistics and storage, was part of an emergency medical services master plan brought to county council last year, said Stephen Turner, Manager, emergency medical services, in his report to council. It said the new consolidated centre should be in the area of Highway 40 and Highway 402 and would need to be about 24,000 square feet.

Turner says EMS management has been talking with the Western Research Park about using its site. It’s already moved its administration to the building.

“Having administration and operations co-located is important to ensure better connection between the service’s leadership and the day-to-day operations of the service,” Turner wrote. Moving into the Research Park, he added would save about $3 million because EMS would now only need a 14,000 square foot building.

Engineers have estimated the cost of the building at $10,795,706. Turner says about half of that will be recovered by provincial grants over the course of the building’s life.

Turner is proposing about $1.08 million be taken from reserves for EMS. The rest, the county would be covered by a loan.

County council will look at the plan during budget, but councillors Feb. 5 gave EMS approval to work with the research park on a lease.It’s not the only big ask from EMS which will be dealt with at budget.

Turner also wants to move ahead with 12 more hours of service a day in Sarnia. The recent EMS Master Plan found 62 per cent of calls are in Sarnia but only 32 per cent of the ambulances and paramedics are in the city “requiring ambulances from the rest of the county to be brought into the city on standby for coverage,” writes Turner.

“This movement has resulted in longer response times in the county’s rural regions, which approach 27 minutes in some areas.”

Turner is proposing four new paramedics be hired starting in June to man a new ambulance assigned to Sarnia.

The EMS head says it will cost $600,000 to staff the ambulance in 2025 which will be part of this year’s property taxes. Half the cost of the salaries will be funded by the province the next year, he added.
The $322,000 for the new ambulance will come from EMS Reserves.

County councillors will begin budget deliberations March 5.