![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Listen to this article<\/p>\n
Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n
Ottawa’s cuts to health-care funding agreements with the province will negatively affect ambulance services in Prince Edward Island, says a representative of the union for paramedics and transport operators.<\/p>\n
P.E.I. Health and Wellness Minister Cory Deagle flagged the cuts in the P.E.I. Legislature this week, saying his department “was told” by the federal government that more than $29 million in funding agreements with Health Canada will not be renewed over the next three years.<\/p>\n
That includes $2.6 million for mobile mental health units and student well-being teams, and $3 million for palliative home care co-ordinator staffing and mobile integrated health \u2014 funding that Ottawa plans to end by March 31, 2027.<\/p>\n
Jason Woodbury, president of CUPE Local 3324, which represents paramedics and transport operators in the province, said cutting funding to those programs will lead to more calls to 911.<\/p>\n
He said the services provide care at people\u2019s homes and respond to mental health crises that might avoid having to take someone to the emergency department.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, Islanders’ health is going to suffer. Islanders are going to feel \u2026 increased wait times, more than what they are seeing now in acute care,” Woodbury said.<\/p>\n
“It’s extremely frustrating when there’s this significant amount of money being cut from health care. Health care is currently at a crucial state right now and in desperate need of a revitalization … and when you cut services like this out of it, there’s going to be repercussions.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776979690_738_default.jpg\")
Jason Woodbury expects 911 call volumes will increase with federal cuts to the province’s health-care funding by March of next year. (Connor Lamont\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Deagle said Wednesday that the provincial government intends to continue the programs, but that’s more difficult to do without support from Ottawa and with provincial budgets tightening across the country.<\/p>\n
The health minister said he intends to raise the issue with his federal counterpart, Marjorie Michel, when he meets with her.<\/p>\n
Woodbury said the cuts will see P.E.I. paramedics face increased workloads “and, unfortunately, we’re going to see increased burnout.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We are facing a staffing shortage. It is not uncommon for our ground ambulance services to go unstaffed to full capacity,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s going to trickle into the emergency departments \u2026 [and] the whole health-care system.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-394355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}