2026 Response Time Standard Target Planning - Issue Report

Report To:    Program Planning Committee

From:               Robert Smith, Chief of Paramedic Services

Date:                September 18, 2025

Re:                    2026 Response Time Standard Target Planning - Issue Report

Overview

Paramedic Services across Ontario are legislatively required to design and publish an annual plan that sets out response time targets. This document is titled the Response Time Standard (RTS) Plan. Each year, by the end of October, for Upper Tier Municipalities (UTM) and Designated Delivery Agents (DDA) must approve and submit the RTS Plan for the following year. This Report sets out the targets for 2026.

Response Time targets capture the time from when Paramedic Services are advised to respond to a call until Paramedics arrive at the scene. The Response Time targets are also stratified by the patient severity determined by the Paramedics once patient contact is made. The tool for defining patient severity is the Canadian Triage Acuity Scale, with ranking patient severity between Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) 1 as the most severe, to CTAS 5 as the least severe.

Additionally, the plan must identify Response Time targets for sudden cardiac arrest incidents. The target time for Sudden Cardiac Arrest calls has been set established by the Province of Ontario at six (6) minutes while the target time for CTAS incidents has been established by the Province of Ontario at eight (8) minutes. In each of these subsets, Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB sets the percentage of the times that Paramedics will meet the target times.

Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB sets the response time targets times and expected percentage compliance for CTAS 2 to 5 incidents.

Each spring, each UTM and DDA must report on their Response Time Standard target success for the previous calendar year. As such, in March of 2026, Manitoulin-Sudbury
DSB will be required to report target success for 2025.
 
Current State

Response Time Standard planning by Paramedic Services leadership has historically worked to evolve targets in a cautious manner that considers several factors.   Increased deployment of resources, the development of the non-urgent patient transfer services, and growth of the Community Paramedic program are all factors that are considered when developing a solid plan.

Recent deployment changes where resources were added on Manitoulin Island helped to ensure target times were achieved. Despite this, staffing challenges, geography, and lengthy transport time to hospitals across the districts remain impactful on the ability to respond to patient needs quickly.

Paramedic Services call volumes continue to climb with a 21% increase in 2025 over 2024. Additionally, the call acuity has shifted with a reduction in nonurgent activities and a significant increase in urgent and emergent requests for service. 

Opportunities

A number of actions are being developed by Paramedic Services staff in an effort to help mitigate impacts on responding resources. These include the ongoing development of a multifaceted recruitment strategy intended to mitigate ongoing staffing challenges that extend across Ontario. 

Paramedic Services staff are working to expand the relationship with Allied Services and have increased the number of medical-tiered response agreements (MTRA) across the districts. The addition of response agreements with communities, where possible could reduce time to scene and improve target compliance. Paramedic services has also now deployed the first Advanced Care Paramedic, and while this addition does not alter the response times, the medical care made available to the residents has been enhanced. 

In 2026, second quarter, the Ministry of Health will be implementing their Medical Priority Dispatching System (MPDS) across Manitoulin-Sudbury Districts. The system design is intended to better classify call acuity for 9-1-1 responses and in doing so, help to ensure resource availability is maintained for the most serious incidents.   

2026 RTS Targets

The efforts currently underway to improve deployment, and expand relationships with partners, will require time to prove beneficial. With that in mind, and the generational shift in the dispatching model, staff proposes maintaining the 2025 target response times in 2026. This will allow for the changes being implemented to evolve and provide benefit before modifying the targets. 

Figure 1

*Target response Times for SCA and CTAS 1 calls are established by the Province of Ontario