Ornge, Ontario's official health transportation and air ambulance agency, has created a new base of operations at the Greater Sudbury Airport.
Company staff and stakeholders took part in an opening event June 23 at the new "superbase" of operations, located on the north side of the airfield with quick access to both ground and airside operations.
The hangar was constructed in 2015 by the City of Greater Sudbury and in the past year it has been renovated for the creation of the new Northeastern Ontario base of Ornge. This will include hiring scores of new employees to bring the full roster at Sudbury to more than 100 workers by July of 2026.
The Ornge base complex is more than 35,000 square feet which includes 21,000 square feet of indoor hangar space, 10,000 square feet of office space, along with additional apron space for parking aircraft outside of the hangar.
The new base is all part of a $108-million expansion announced in November 2023 to purchase new aircraft for Ornge. This also included acquiring the hangar for $10 million to create the new base of operations which will be on call for all of Northeastern Ontario.
In speaking to Monday's event, Ornge CEO Dr. Homer Tien — a veteran trauma surgeon at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre — said a review of the service revealed that improvements were needed.
"As many of you will be aware, there's been a dedicated air ambulance base in Sudbury since 1981," said Tien.
"Over the past few years, it has become clear that there are gaps in patient transport across northeastern Ontario, and that a greater investment in air ambulance was needed," he said.
Tien said Northern Ontario's vast geography is one of the reasons for stepping up the investment.
"And so the fixed wing aircraft are the backbone of access to care and health equity in the North to get up to the remote Indigenous communities along the James Bay coast," he said.
"These planes fly 24/7 to bring people to the care that they need. And this has been a great investment into Ornge and into Ontario from a health care point of view. And so we're really looking forward to the addition of two, 24/7, fixed wing aircraft here at Ornge," said Tien.
Wade Durham, Ornge's chief operating officer, said Sudbury said Orgne was formerly based in the smaller Ministry of Health hangar, also at the airport.
"They used to house our one helicopter...but in February of this year, we moved into this new location, a much larger facility as you can see, which we're going to house the helicopter,” Durham said. “We're also going to house two fixed wing aircraft, dedicated critical care aircraft. And in April of this year, we launched our first Pilatus PC 12 aircraft early. So on April 22 we went live 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and that asset provides critical care transport to patients across Ontario."
Durham said Ornge is more than having a helicopter land at the scene of some extreme disaster to rescue injured people. He said a key function of Ornge is to provide transportation to seriously sick people who, for example, need to be moved from a small remote hospital to a larger medical centre.
This could transfer patients from the James Bay Coast to Timmins or Sudbury. This could bring patients from Sudbury to Toronto, or Ottawa or London.
Durham said the previous Ornge operation in Sudbury had 30 to 40 staff, but he said that will change within the coming year.
"By July of next year, we'll have well over 100 full-time employees at this base, including pilots, paramedics, aircraft maintenance, engineers, education staff, support staff. It will be a large operation," he said.
Ornge held a career fair at the airport on Tuesday, said Durham. He said several jobs are in demand.
"We're looking for trained pilots, paramedics, aircraft maintenance engineers, because we're always looking for people that want to come to Ornge, want to make it a career. It's obviously a very rewarding career. It's a great, great job, especially in the North," said Durham
The company website also has a careers page that provides job listings.
Also speaking at the event was Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas. She said she was pleased to see the expansion of service.
"I am deeply, deeply thankful for the changes that you've brought to Ornge, for the care that you've put into your decision making. You obviously put people and patient care first. It shows in the way that you run Ornge, and it shows in the work that you've put in to be able to bring those new aircraft to Northern Ontario," she said.
"It's a proud day for all of us in Northern Ontario, and that's thank you to you."
Len Gillis covers health care and mining for Sudbury.com.
