CORRECTION: The article was updated to say that the station that will be relocated closer Virgil is the Old Town station, not the Glendale station. It also clarified the consultants were not necessarily from NOTL.
Niagara Emergency Medical Services is looking to relocate its station in Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Old Town to be closer to Virgil, in an effort to respond to more emergencies in the community faster.
This was one part of a 10-year master plan presented to NOTL council by Niagara EMS, which examines regional demand for emergency care, some of the organization’s challenges in meeting its goals and facilities it needs for the future.
It also includes a proposal to relocate the existing Old Town station on Wellington Street to Niagara Stone Road and East-West Line.
Newly appointed Niagara EMS chief Karen Lutz-Graul presented the plan to council, which includes recommendations made by consultants for improving what it does.
Lutz-Graul said NOTL currently has two EMS stations: one at the former hospital site and another at Westwood Court off York Road.
The former hospital site operates one 24-hour ambulance and one 12-hour ambulance, while Westwood Court has two 12-hour ambulances.
The plan recommends locating a hub station at Niagara Stone Road and East-West Line, which is expected to help meet the target of responding to 80 per cent of the most urgent calls within eight minutes.
“I can say, having worked in NOTL for much of my career, the Niagara Stone Road access gets pretty busy, especially in the summer months,” Lutz-Graul said.
“Having the option to go on the backway into NOTL is pretty important as well.”
She said they haven’t achieved the eight-minute target for the sickest patients, yet.
In 2023, response times met the target 51.8 per cent of the time; in 2024, 46 per cent; and from January to September 2025, 69 per cent — an improvement she attributed to adding a second ambulance at Westwood Court.
Computer modelling predicts that relocating the station to East-West Line would improve response times to 80.5 per cent.
“It’s a massive improvement,” she said.
Lutz-Graul said the service is adopting a “hub-spoke-post” model to better organize the full scope of what it does.
Niagara EMS’s main hub would be located near the current Westwood Court station with 60 per cent of the emergency medical service’s staff reporting to this hub.
The remaining 40 per cent, meanwhile, would report to two smaller hubs, or “spokes,” in west and south Niagara.
Additional smaller “post” stations across the region would support the network and improve response capacity.
She said the model is designed to reduce non-emergency duties for paramedics at their stations, keeping them ready to respond immediately when calls come in. Niagara Region endorsed the model in February.
She noted there has been interest in relocating the former hospital site station.
Coun. Sandra O’Connor asked whether the fire station near the Community Centre had been considered as a potential site.
Frank Fucile, the region’s manager of real estate, said it had been reviewed, but consultants recommended a more central location between Old Town and outlying areas, such as East-West Line.
Lutz-Graul said Niagara EMS began working with a consultant on the master plan in 2023.
Emergency medical services in Niagara are funded equally by the province and the region.
daniel@niagaranow.com
