88 paramedics have been officially welcomed to the team.
On Friday, Essex-Windsor EMS held a special ceremony to celebrate and welcome the 88 paramedics who have been hired since early 2020.
These paramedics, who had been hired between 2020 and 2023, were formally congratulated as colleagues by members of Essex County Council.
Essex-Windsor EMS Chief, Bruce Krauter, states that every single one of the new paramedics are to be thanked for their courage, their dedication, their professionalism and their commitment.
Krauter says that recruitment is still ongoing.
"We have a recruitment campaign going on right now as we speak, it's posted. We're optimistic we'll get another handful, and I say that very optimistically, probably a dozen paramedics that want to come in to the service and join our ranks."
He says the need is there for more paramedics locally.
"Retirements are on the horizon, not only with upper management, but paramedics they're all very much tired and we need to get a replenishment. Good news again on this, we talked to St. Clair College last week and they're at capacity. They actually have a waiting list to get new paramedics into the college program, but that is all really good news."
James Jovanovic, President of CUPE Local 2974.2, says recruiting and retaining paramedics is key.
"The entire province is competing for a very limited amount of new paramedics on a yearly basis. And I still think that our local community is expanding, in both age and number of population, so I think that we need to continue looking forward of not only as this being sufficient, but as a reminder that we need to continue to recruit, but also retain our current paramedics."
Krauter adds County Council has just approved a 'Paramedic Aide Program' which will see six hires help at local hospitals to help with offload delays and ensure ambulances can be returned to the community at a quicker pace.
Jovanovic adds that the celebration was a chance to congratulate and say thank you to the new paramedics for their hard work and sacrifices.
The Commencement Ceremony was held at the St. Clair Centre for the Arts in Windsor.
-with files from AM800's Aaron Mahoney