page_title: Ornge
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ornge / History
caption_attribution_description: English: I took this photo of an S-76A (C-GIMM) at Ottawa Airport 11 August 2007
context_page_description: Ornge is the non-profit charitable organization which provides air ambulance and associated ground transportation service for the province of Ontario, Canada under the direction of the province's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. The provision of ambulance services in Ontario is governed by the Ambulance Act, which states that the Minister of Health "has the duty and the power" to make sure Ontario is serviced by a "balanced and integrated system of ambulance services and communication services used in dispatching ambulances". Its headquarters are in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
  The name Ornge is not an acronym, but is based on the orange colour of its aircraft and land ambulances. According to the organization, "The 'a' was removed from the name, partly to make people stop and take a second look, and also so that it could be trademarked."
  In 2012 Ornge and its associated companies employed more than 400 people, including paramedics, pilots and aviation specialists. Ornge has its own aircraft and land ambulances, with 12 bases across Ontario. It also contracts some operations out to independent service providers.
context_section_description: Prior to Ornge, the air ambulance program was established in 1977 to serve remote areas, primarily in Northern Ontario, that are inaccessible to land ambulances or that land ambulances would take too long to reach. Ontario was the first Canadian province to provide a helicopter-based air ambulance system to transport critically ill patients to hospital. Air ambulances are also used to transport medical teams and organs for transplant. A large part of the air ambulance service is involved in serving aboriginal communities, of which there are approximately 117, in 6 treaty areas of Northern Ontario.
  The first air ambulance, "Bandage One" a Bell 212, was operated out of Buttonville Airport by private operator Viking Helicopters Incorporated(later to become part of Canadian Helicopters.) A second Bell 212, "Bandage Two", was after one year pilot deemed successful and located in Sudbury, Ontario followed by "Bandage Three" in Thunder Bay, "Bandage Four" in Timmins and "Bandage Five in Sioux Lookout for a total of 5 by 1981. Fixed-wing service began in 1978, provided by Austin Airways, with a Timmins based Cessna Citation I. Eventually almost 90 private aircraft would be employed.
  This arrangement lasted more than 25 years, until about 2005, as the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care contracted with private operators to provide its air ambulance program’s aircraft, pilots and paramedics. The Ministry directly operated the central air ambulance dispatch centre and was responsible for overseeing the overall effectiveness of the air ambulance program.
  In 2005, the Ministry announced that it was appointing a not-for-profit corporation called the Ontario Air Ambulance Corporation to be responsible for all air ambulance operations. This was done to establish clearer lines of authority among the different parts of air ambulance operations. An arm’s-length corporation was also consistent with the Ministry’s objective of moving away from direct service delivery. The corporation's name was subsequently changed to Ornge. Ornge was described in 2012 as being neither a Crown corporation nor an agency directly controlled by the Government of Ontario, but rather a non-profit organisation incorporated under the federal Canada Corporations Act.
  The Ministry operated an air ambulance dispatch centre in Toronto until Ornge took over and MATC (Medical Air Transport Centre) became the Ornge Communications Centre.
  On 17 September 2007, Ornge Air was created.  It would purchase aircraft and compete with the private-sector providers.
  Today, the air ambulance program has become an integral component of the larger emergency health system in communities across the province.
caption: An early production Sikorsky S-76A owned by Canadian Helicopters and used in the Ontario air ambulance role in August 2007. The aircraft is in an earlier Ontario Air Ambulance paint scheme.
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver1.05", "Image DateTime": "2007:08:11 08:06:57", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "416", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1424", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6328", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "26/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:08:11 08:06:57", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:08:11 08:06:57", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "4161/500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "24/5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "33/100", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "19/2", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1288", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "72", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}