A big lifesaving gift is heading to a northern community from the City of Guelph.
The City of Guelph is donating a decommissioned Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service ambulance to Kugaaruk, Nunavut.
"It needs to be reliable, but it doesn't need to be able to travel the thousands of kilometres that an ambulance down here does," said Stephen Dewar, the chief of Guelph-Wellington EMS. "So a decommissioned ambulance actually works for them.
"We were happy to be able to help them."
A tiny village of 770 residents, Kugaaruk is located on the shore of Pelly Bay, on a northern part of Nunavut's mainland.
Dewar said this is the first time one of the agency's decommissioned vehicles will be shipped out of town. While one previous ambulance was donated to St. John's Ambulance, and stayed local, others tend to go to auction.
"We weren't focused on it entirely, but we approached our city's executive team in February, and asked them whether they would be interested in donating it," Dewar said.
The city agreed, and the team took a look to see which ambulances were on the verge of being decommissioned.
He said the organization Ambulances 4NU made the request for an ambulance. It was founded by John Prno, a former longtime chief of Waterloo Region EMS.
This will be Ambulance 4NU's 12th ambulance donated to a northern community since 2018.
"I just serve as the middle man, and arrange the transportation," Prno told GuelphToday. "Make sure the vehicle gets there, and it's a vehicle that's in a good condition."
Prno said the communities receiving the ambulances cover the transportation costs, though he's not sure if the northern communities get a grant for these kinds of purchases.
He said the boat trip costs about $5,000, depending on where the community is.
Ambulances 4NU covers the cost for the volunteers from St. John's Ambulance to transport the ambulance to the port, including gas, meals and hotel costs.
"If you look at it from the northern communities' point of view, if they were buying this vehicle, they'd pay $25,000, plus the $5,000 (for transportation), plus the $2,000 (for a trucking company) to move it," Prno said.
He said instead, the $5,000 the community pays for the boat ride is a little more economical.
Economical, effective and an endeavour close to Prno's heart.
He said when he was Waterloo Region's paramedic services chief, he'd send decommissioned ambulances to third world countries in Africa and South America.
But Prno's son, an environmental consultant in the north, opened his eyes to what he called the third world conditions in the north.
"(My son would) tell me stories about people in the north being moved to the health centre in the back of a pickup truck in the middle of the winter time," he said. "That's just not the way we should be doing things."
He said the impact is huge and helps save lives, recalling the story of a premature baby born on the remote island of Igloolik, north of the Northwestern Passages.
The story was told by the community's mayor, who went to Peel Region to thank them for their ambulance donation a few years ago.
"(The infant) was really medically unstable," Prno recalls. "They were moving the child to Ottawa by air ambulance. The transport crew came up and they were absolutely concerned that they wouldn't be able to keep this baby warm in the conditions that they were used to in that community, like putting the incubator in the back of a pickup truck.
"When they saw that there was an ambulance there, and one that had all the modern conveniences,and they can plug into the power supply and keep their incubator warm, and everything else, the smiles from ear to ear.
"This baby survived, and the nurse said 'you saved a life that day.' We've had numerous stories like that over the years now."
And now, Guelph-Wellington's donation will help another northern community in need.
The volunteers got it to the port town of Becancour, Quebec – on the south side of the St. Lawrence River, near Trois-Rivieres – and it is due to set sail on a ship next week.
It will arrive in Kugaaruk in early September.
Dewar said the service is also sending some expired personal protective equipment, which tends to be expensive to ship to Nunavut.
As well, Dewar said another organization Prno is connected with is facilitating the donation of disposable diapers, infant formula, school supplies and more.
Those supplies are being loaded in the back of two ambulances to be shipped up north. The second ambulance is being donated from another community.
