New bursary for emergency medical responder students
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The Manitoba government has created a new $5,000 bursary program for emergency medical responder students, according to a news release on Wednesday.
Students who receive the bursary will enter a one-year return-of-service-agreement once they are hired, which will require them to work in rural Manitoba.
The province is offering financial help to make enrolling in a course more appealing, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said in the release.
“We’re putting trainees in rural municipalities, where they can get hands-on experience on real-world emergency calls and fall in love with rural Manitoba,” the minister said.
By the fall of 2026, approximately 50 to 60 emergency medical responder students are expected to graduate, complete the Canadian Organization of Paramedic Regulators exam and be eligible for hiring into provincial emergency medical services, Asagwara said.
Emergency medical responders can play an important role in supporting emergency medical services, but they don’t have the training to respond to emergency medical calls, Jason Linklater said in a statement, who is the president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals.
Many time-sensitive or high-acuity calls such as cardiac arrests, severe trauma, violent or unstable patients and obstetrical emergencies, require simultaneous interventions by two fully trained paramedics, he said.
Emergency medical responders “limited scope of practice does not allow them to provide anywhere near the same level of care that paramedics can,” Linklater said.
The NDP has added 18 of the 200 paramedics it promised to add since being elected in 2023, he said.
» The Brandon Sun