Indigenous health leaders in Quebec say delays in signing new funding agreements are putting lives at risk, with dozens of First Nations communities still without basic ambulance coverage.
In an interview with CityNews Montreal, Robert Bonspiel, president of First Nations Paramedics, said funding uncertainty means communities do not know whether essential services will continue beyond the current financial year.
He warned that despite decades of inquiries and promises, emergency response remains dangerously slow in many communities. “We are no further ahead in 2025 than when I started working in EMS (1988)” he said.
The concerns come more than six years after the Viens Commission, a Quebec public inquiry into relations between Indigenous peoples and public services, handed down 142 calls to action in 2019. Many focused on health care and emergency services after evidence that ambulance response times in some communities stretched to 60–90 minutes and contributed to avoidable deaths.
A follow‑up “situation report” from the Quebec ombudsman in November 2025 found progress on those recommendations remains patchy. The watchdog warned that budget constraints and delays were undermining implementation and highlighted several urgent calls to action in health and emergency care that still have not been fully met.
One proposed fix is PRECA, a first‑responder program designed for communities that do not have an ambulance. PRECA would train local volunteers to stabilise patients while waiting for paramedics, but Bonspiel says funding approvals keep being pushed back. “Programs like this are set aside… they’re not deemed necessary and urgent, and the people don’t get the care that they require,” he told CityNews.
Derek Montour, president of the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission, says the situation shows governments still fail to treat Indigenous rights as binding. He argues that when Quebec and Ottawa do not follow through on commitments, “it shows with the lack of progress that Quebec or Canada doesn’t have to” uphold First Nations’ rights in practice.
According to the 2021 Census, about 205,000 Indigenous people live in Quebec, making up 2.5 per cent of the province’s population, including First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities. Yet Bonspiel notes that 52 predominantly Indigenous communities still rely on police, first responders or nursing stations instead of a dedicated ambulance service.
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