Article content There were reports of people in distress waiting several hours before an ambulance arrived. Sometimes, when paramedics finally arrived, the caller was dead. Union president Troy Clifford told Global News that the union was embarrassed by BCEHS leadership and had a meeting scheduled with Health Minister Adrian Dix to discuss staffing shortages and to address archaic rules like that in which rural paramedics are paid $2 an hour when they are on shift and only get paid a full wage when they are on a call. In a prepared statement, the Ministry of Health said it had invested “massively” in the ambulance service, increasing the BCEHS budget from $424 million in 2017 to $560 million in 2020.