Southern Health Santé Sud has broken ground on a new emergency medical services facility in Portage la Prairie.

The move comes to ensure the province's commitment to developing a flexible deployment model that ensures timely response to medical emergencies across the province.

MLA Ian Wishart, Southern Health CEO Jane Curtis, and Regional EMS Director Scott Noble were all on hand to turn the sod at the site located at 524 5th Street SE. Noble says this is going to be a big upgrade.

"Currently, the existing EMS facilities leased space on the Southport campus, which formerly was a fire hall at the time the base was operational. I believe it's the fourth or fifth ideation of an EMS station in Portage. So, it's certainly not modern, and not necessarily what we would consider today's industry standards. It doesn't provide us with some of the assets that the new station will provide."

Southport will still be the location of the EMS facility until the new station is completed in June 2021. Noble says they've been working on developing this project for a while.

"This has been something (the community) looked forward to. I appreciate the fact that we're able to do that. The discussions with Manitoba Health, the Manitoba Government, and the region now through Shared Health had been ongoing for probably about two-and-a-half years. We're just really happy we're able to bring it to fruition."

The new facility will have five EMS bays, a training area, and plenty of office space. The current facility at Southport only has three EMS bays.

Noble is excited to see the project launch.

"Portage is a growing community as are the rural areas of Portage. It makes sense to locate the resource closer to where the service requests are coming from. Proximal to the hospital, we have a high volume of inter-facility transfers that come out of this general hospital with a large patient populous. It makes good sense to put the asset closer."