Edmonton Metro EMS Call Volume

Have you ever wondered how many calls Edmonton paramedics respond to every month? Check out these numbers for average monthly call volume by year:

2018 – 8,254 calls/month

2019 – 8,536 calls/month

2020 – 8,920 calls/month

2021 – 10,240 calls/month

2022 – 10,496 calls/month

2023 – 11,292 calls/month

2024 – 11,759 calls/month

2025 – 12,604 calls/month

The number of 911 calls has been steadily increasing year over year. In 2025, we are averaging 12,600 calls per month. May 2025 alone saw an average of 550 EMS 911 calls per day in Edmonton. In contrast, January 2018 saw an average of less than 300 EMS 911 calls per day. This is an explosive increase in demand being placed on our EMS system and frontline paramedics. Unfortunately, the number of ambulances has not increased proportionally to the call volume in that same amount of time.

The burden of keeping up with the ever-increasing demand of 911 calls has fallen on the shoulders of front line paramedics. Instead of adding more ambulances, the strategic focus has remained on reducing the amount of time paramedics spend at hospitals to offload patients. While this is an area that needed improvement, it is not the solution to meeting increased call volume of this magnitude. The current strategic solutions being proposed for EMS amount to having paramedics work harder to increase the number of calls that can be completed in a shift. This increased demand being placed on paramedics leads to increased levels of stress and burnout because paramedics don’t have time to rest and decompress in between calls. Furthermore, paramedics frequently must stay past the end of their shifts due to late calls.

This graph below clearly shows that as call volume steadily increases the number of ambulances remains relatively stagnant.

This is not sustainable. This is not an issue that can be solved by improving efficiency, rebranding or changing a logo. The way you satisfy increased demand is by increasing supply. We need more ambulances to properly respond to the increasing 911 calls.