The Deputy Fire Chief of Erin, a community 30 km northeast of Guelph, told the Guelph Mercury that residents know reporting certain maladies will get the fire department dispatched faster than an ambulance. “We teach people around here to say you’re having trouble breathing … which will trigger us to come,” said Deputy Fire Chief Ken Keeler.
Town officials have complained about slow response times from the Guelph-run ambulance service. Graham Smith, manager of Erin’s community centre, said “If I had someone down here I would definitely say they were having trouble breathing because you just get a better response time.”
Guelph-Wellington EMS has an agreement with the fire fighters over what kinds of calls are appropriate for the fire department to respond to.
The issue gained public attention after a woman waited for more than an hour for ambulance service after falling and injuring her knee outside the Erin Community Centre. Shawn Armstrong, regional director of EMS, told the newspaper “that type of situation happens in the City of Guelph and County of Wellington every day.” He said the delay was a combination of bad weather and prioritizing of calls.
OPSEU represents members at the Guelph-Wellington EMS.
OPSEU Diablogue 
Soooo, if someone actually has difficulty breathing the response to them will be slower because emergency crews will be rsponding to fake difficulty breathing calls. Nice one.