New Superior North EMS Headquarters Under Construction
by Scott A. Sumner
On a very cool morning April 15th at 105 S Junot Street in Thunder Bay a brief ceremony was held to mark the official opening of the new $11 million Superior North EMS building. This new structure will be the headquarters in the Thunder Bay district to the 190 EMS staff, 170 of
whom are paramedics.
“ It is an exciting day for EMS, our paramedics and indeed for the citizens of Thunder Bay. With this new facility, which is long overdue and frankly 20 years in the making, the citizens of Thunder Bay and in particular in the North Ward and including throughout the district
of Thunder Bay will see improved service through EMS,” said Norm Gale, Chief of EMS. “ It absolutely will help us. The facilities we have now are inadequate in terms of size and health and safety issues. This facility will address those issues. Our paramedics will have sufficient
space in which to do their work and keep the equipment which includes sensitive diagnostic units in a clean and secure area. It is a big deal for EMS and our paramedics.”
According to Gale the new site is a good location. “ We have a problem with our response times in Thunder Bay North so one of the things this station will addressed is response time in Thunder Bay North. We will have two other satellite stations in the city, one on Beck Street in Thunder Bay North and we are looking at a new station for Thunder Bay South which is in progress,” said Gale. “ The building will be 35,000 square feet in size. A large component of that will be garage space. There will be room for 20 EMS vehicles inside the garage. There will also be administrative and training space, warehouse space and paramedic quarters.”
“ We are planning on substantial completion in December of this year and moving in the winter time after that. All of our staff that are stationed in the city of Thunder Bay are working in facilities now that are lacking in some form. This will improve conditions for paramedics.
The facility is LEEDS Gold. We looked at new facilities across the province including in Ottawa and Waterloo and took what they did well, learned from their mistakes and avoided them.” said Norm Gale.
“ I am very happy to see this day. It is the culmination of a lot of work with administration, Norm Gale and his people and the neighbours. It was originally proposed on the north side of Red River Road. This property was just sitting here and after all was said and done EMS was
happy with it. What the location will do is create other development because there were never services here before and now there are going to be services. It is good for everyone,” said Brian McKinnon, Councillor, Red River Road. “ It will be a gorgeous building. It has everything they need for not only Thunder Bay but the whole district. It will be attractive for the EMS staff. The road will be four laned here as well. We want to put some crossings in here for pedestrians.
Thunder Bay is booming. I’m bias but this is one example.”
