Firefighters and paramedics on P.E.I. are sounding the alarm over increased workloads and rising emergency medical service delays that are impacting their mental health and complicating recruitment and retention.

That's what MLAs heard Wednesday from officials representing first responders during a legislative standing committee meeting.

Darrell Graham, board director of the P.E.I. Firefighters Association and chief of the Alberton Fire Department, said delayed ambulance response times — especial…