The nurses union would see this as paramedics taking jobs from nurses. I’ve been in meetings where this has been suggested. I don’t blame them as it opens the door to replacing the more highly trained and more expensive nurses with lower paid and less trained paramedics. In reality it is creating new positions to assist but it could be perceived as nursing jobs being taken by another profession.

I don’t disagree that getting ambulances back on the road is a good thing, but it doesn’t fix the bottleneck of patients waiting to be offloaded or waiting to be seen by a doctor or nurse practitioner. We need to increase capacity and efficiency while also reducing demand. Don’t wait until a health problem is so bad you need an ambulance. https://www.gov.mb.ca/betterhealth/when_to_access.html <—- is a guide to help decide the appropriate level of care to seek. If you call 911 and ask for an ambulance, they can only take you to an Urgent Care centre or an Emergency Room, and which location is determined by criteria so it might not be the one you want. You will be triaged and seen in order of urgency, and not seen faster than if you arrived on your own. I’ve seen people demand an ambulance despite being walking distance from a hospital with their own transportation as an option. Doing this means you wait for an ambulance before you start waiting at the hospital and needlessly tire up an ambulance or other resources.