This is from the Canadian Press.

This is rather puzzling. I suppose the eight hours is the average aimed at for both those with complex and non-complex conditions. As the article points out they want an average of four hours for less complex conditions.
One would think that a more relevant statistic would be wait times rather than time spent in emergency. It is the wait time that is crucial.
In my area in the boondocks whenever I have gone I have never waited more than ten minutes! Even when I used to live in a city in Brandon, I never waited more than twenty minutes or half an hour.


Ontario to set eight-hour target for time spent in emergency rooms
3 days ago
TORONTO — Health Minister David Caplan is setting a target today to have patients spend no more than eight hours in the province's emergency rooms.
The provincial government will also be releasing ER wait times from hospitals across the province. According to government figures, nine out of 10 patients with complex conditions spend a maximum of 13.5 hours in the ER from registration to discharge.
The majority of patients with less serious conditions spend about 4.6 hours in the ER.
The province wants to reduce that time to four hours.
The government says it's the first province in Canada to set targets for time spent in the ER, and will report local information about ER wait times on a provincial website.