The province plans to create a service for non-emergency ambulance transfers that will remove the need for crews  capable of speaking both French and English.

The new service will determine a hospital patient's language of choice before an ambulance is dispatched, and staff with the "linguistic capabilities" to look after the call will respond, according to the plan announced Monday by Premier Blaine Higgs.

The service, to be implemented by Ambulance New Brunswick, will allow 40 casual paramedics to move to permanent full-time status, according to the government announcement.

"Our priority is protecting the health and safety of residents," Higgs said in a news release.

In a statement, the province said transfers make up about 30 per cent of Ambulance New Brunswick's call volume. There were 112,000 calls for transfers last year, up 18 per cent from five years ago.

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Separating transfers from the 911 emergency response system will reduce delays in both systems, the announcement said, and offer more flexibility in hiring and retaining employees.

Ambulance NB is supposed to provide emergency service in the language of a patient's choice, but the bilingualism requirement has been blamed for a shortage of paramedics and late-arriving ambulances.

People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin and Health Minister Hugh Flemming were also at the announcement in Fredericton.

"No longer will desperate families be forced to load severely ill and injured loved ones in the backs of their own vehicles hoping to get to a hospital before it is too late because no ambulance is available when it is needed," Austin said in the release.

Problems with the ambulance service

Problems with the ambulance service, which some critics, including Austin, have blamed on an inability to find required bilingual employees, became an issue in the recent provincial election.

Over the past few months, Ambulance New Brunswick has also been criticized for paramedic shortages and ambulance delays across the province.

In October, Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs — who was not yet premier of New Brunswick — said such issues would be the first priority for a PC government if he were to assume power.

Higgs pledged to bring in Medavie Health Services, the company that runs Ambulance New Brunswick, on Day 1 and give it a  week to put forth solutions.

Higgs was sworn in Nov. 9 after the Liberal government of Brian Gallant fell the week before.

Slow response by paramedics 

In October, former health minister Benoî​t Bourque said a discussion paper on ambulance service revealed a drastic shortage of trained bilingual paramedics and a lack of language training to fill the need where bilingual service is required.

The document said 51 out of 61 vacant full-time paramedic positions are bilingual jobs, as are 31 of 40 part-time vacancies.

Today's announcement comes more than three weeks after a 13-year-old boy died in an ATV crash in Haut-Lamèque after family, police and firefighters waited about 45 minutes for paramedics to arrive at the scene.

Medavie recently announced a second ambulance for Saint-Quentin, which fought for two years to get better coverage.

That announcement came after a cyclist was struck and injured by a vehicle and waited more than 40 minutes before being taken to hospital three blocks away by a passerby.