Shared Health not posting all vacant paramedic jobs: union

The Manitoba union representing rural paramedics is raising concerns that Shared Health isn’t posting all available jobs and some haven’t been made public for more than a year, despite recording vacancies on the rise throughout the province.

The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals provided Shared Health data, accessed through freedom of information requests, showing vacant paramedic positions across Manitoba increased from 90 in 2023 to 162 in 2025. In Southern Health, vacant jobs rose from 25 in 2023 to 30 in 2025.

Of that number, 12 positions, nearly half of Southern Health’s vacant positions, haven’t been posted for 90 days or longer, with the longest lasting 432 days. Four of those positions are located in Steinbach.

Filled Manitoba paramedic jobs also decreased from 519 in 2023 to 485 in 2025.

Hiring all types of paramedics throughout Manitoba is a top priority, said Shared Health spokesperson Anya Willis. Its approach to addressing the vacancies looks at the entire province and filling where its most needed, she said.

“All positions are posted with this broader picture in mind so that areas of the province which are more difficult to staff are not disadvantaged,” Willis said in an email statement.

As of May 4, there are 73 paramedic positions posted throughout Shared Health, with two postings targeting the southern zone, which represents Southern Health.

However on Shared Health’s public job portal, 34 positions were posted and only one was in the south zone, located in Swan Lake, roughly 150 kilometres west of Steinbach. Many of the posted jobs are located throughout northern Manitoba.

Willis explained the discrepancy is because postings accounted for more than one position. But an analysis by The Carillon found each posting represented one job and only one listing was for the southern zone.

Union president Jason Linklater views the provincial health authority’s strategy as “short-sighted.” He said Shared Health is concerned that if they post a job in southern Manitoba, people would leave more isolated jobs to work there.

“I think people end up feeling like they’re being held hostage in a geographical location of Manitoba that they’re not from,” Linklater said.

People becoming paramedics may be willing to work in remote areas for a period for time, but they don’t want to be stuck there permanently, he said. Shared Health’s strategy pushes people out of the profession or makes them leave the province because it isn’t compatible with where they want to work, Linklater said.

With job vacancies lasting more than a year, existing paramedics are forced to cover larger areas with fewer numbers in the southern region, he said. Response times increase when paramedics are “stretched thin,” lasting more than an hour in many cases, Linklater said.

The union is calling on the province to post all vacant jobs and create wage incentives for remote jobs to help attract paramedics to isolated regions more permanently. Another solution is training and recruiting people from remote regions to work in their home communities as paramedics, Linklater said. Paramedic seats at post-secondary intuitions need to be upped and education needs to be made accessible for rural applicants, he added.

Shared Health wouldn’t provide The Carillon with current ambulance response times for southern Manitoba, citing it needed to be accessed through a freedom of information request.

In an email statement to The Carillon, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara touted the hiring of 41 net new paramedics, and the province’s tool kit for helping municipalities recruit health-care workers.

During the 2023 provincial election, the NDP pledged to hire 200 paramedics by the end of its first term. The next election must be called by Oct.5, 2027.

“We know there is more work to do, and we will keep working with Shared Health, municipalities and front-line paramedics to strengthen services and improve access to care across Manitoba,” Asagwara said.

Rural Municipality of Stuartburn Reeve Michelle Gawronsky said residents routinely wait more than an hour for an ambulance or drive themselves to Steinbach for care because of the current ambulance vacancies.

“They (residents) have no faith there will be emergency care for them,” she said. “They feel like second-class citizens.”

She sits on a committee with representatives from the Rural Municipalities of Piney and Emerson-Franklin that meets with Southern Health and Shared Health officials. Gawronsky has seen little action on the concerns about ambulance staffing and response times, calling the health authorities’ response as “lip service.”

“We sit in, and we basically waste our time for two hours and their time. It’s a place where we find out the decisions that have been made, rather than having any input into the healthcare in our region,” she said.