The move of the station from Shabaqua Corner to Conmee had several impacts.
An increase in call volume activity by 388% was the most significant. Average call outs from 1995 to 2001 when the station was located at Shabaqua Corner was 61 per year. The total calls responded to from the new site in Conmee in 2003 was 237. This is a direct result of the new station being located much closer to an area with significantly higher call activity.
Because of the increase in call volume, the station was more attractive to work at and two full time paramedics with many years of experience relocated from Ear Falls to work in Conmee. Another resident from the area Conmee area has also made Conmee his home station thus bringing employee stability to this station.
When the City assumed responsibility for the Shabaqua station in 2001, the province had set a reaction time of 20 minutes during periods of on call staffing. This was done to accommodate staff living a long distance from the station. The actual average of reaction times between 1995- October 2002 was less than 18:40 minutes 90% of the time. Reaction time is defined as the time it takes from when a paramedic is paged to when the ambulance leaves the station. After moving the station to Conmee in the fall of 2002, the policy was changed to request a staff reaction time of eight minutes or less. The actual Conmee reaction time since then was below 4:06 for 90 % of the time. This translates in having an ambulance leave the station 14:34 minutes quicker than when the ambulance was at Shabaqua.
The combination of all of the above contributed to an overall improvement of response times. Between 1995-October 2002, the Shabaqua station responded to calls within 38:50 minutes or less 90% of the time on an average of 61 times per year. From October 2002 to December 2003, the Conmee station 90th percentile response time was 34:42 minutes for 290 calls. Normally, an increase in call volume results in overall higher response times, but the improved location of the station in relation to where the calls were resulted in lower response times in those areas. Response times are only calculated on emergency calls, i.e. Code 4s.
Calls from 1995
to Sept 2002 | Call from Oct 2002 to Dec 2003 | Difference | Location |
| # of Calls | Ave./Yr | 90th | # of Calls | 90th |  | |
| | | | | | |
11 | 1.6 | 27:4 | 2 | 29:15 | 2:11 | Mabella |
11 | 1.6 | 30:14 | 4 | 30:41 | :27 | Shabaqua Corners |
24 | 3.4 | 30:7 | | 0:0 | 0:00 | Hwy 11 17 midway |
26 | 3.7 | 27:30 | 7 | 12:40 | (15:10) | Kakabeka Falls North |
22 | 3.1 | 26:39 | 17 | 10:37 | (16:02) | Kakabeka Falls South |
29 | 4.1 | 46:1 | 2 | 51:32 | 5:31 | Upsala |
11 | 1.6 | 49:12 | | 0:0 | 0:00 | Kashabowie |
35 | 5.0 | 36:58 | 4 | 44:3 | 7:05 | Shebandowan Shelter Bay |
19 | 2.7 | 30:58 | 1 | 31:42 | 0:44 | Shebandowan/ Stewart Bay |
Other communities east of Sistonen's Corner also saw improved response times because of the availability of the Conmee station to respond to their locations instead of an ambulance from Thunder Bay. For example Gillies improved by 21:45 minutes, O'Connor by 11:35, Oliver Paipoonge by 9:15 and Hardwick by 35:23 minutes.
As per the table above, increased response times occurred in the Shebandowan area. Extremely low call volumes makes it difficult to make general assumptions in those areas, but the increases varied from under a minute to 7:05 minutes at the higher end of the spectrum. This means that for 10 calls in those affected areas, 90% of the time, the response would have been less than 7:05 minutes more than prior to the relocation. During the same time period, more than 150 calls benefited from improved response times with some locations gaining over 20 minutes on numerous occasions.
It is evident that improved staffing has allowed the reaction time to decrease from 18:40 to 4:06 minutes 90% of the time. This in turn minimized the impact on the longer travel time to the Shebandowan area. The other benefit has been quicker response to surrounding communities around the Conmee station as is demonstrated in the samples above.