Police use red and blue combinations, usually red driver, blue passenger but some services mix and match. Occasionally you will still see all reds but they’re normally older spare cruisers which weren’t switched over. Ambers may be visible to the rear, but this is normally used in a directional arrow application.

Certain special constables are granted the authority to use red lights only, but there seems to be fewer and fewer with most going to blue lights, or ambers.

Provincial offenses officers (such as Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment, etc) use 360 red lights.

Ambulances use red and white combo’s in a 360 fashion. There used to be no specific way they had to flash, but the ministry of health has now decided that all lights in the same visual plane must flash at the same rate, and colours must be seperate (I.e. All red, then all white, then back). Some ambulances use amber lights on the back as a secondary lighting system when you don’t need your full emerg lights active. All services which mount arrow bars on the back of their trucks tend to use red lights for this purpose. Ambulances in Ontario are operated by municipalities, no private companies. Private transfer and event medical trucks are not supposed to have forward facing red lights on a public roadway.

Snow plows use blue to the front (occasionally white as well) and a combination of blue and amber to the rear.

Fire trucks and fire service vehicles run red 360, with typically two ambers to the rear, underneath the rotating reds. They have white lights on the front, that seem to only be activated while the truck is in motion. All arrows bars also seem to be amber.

Public utility/maintenance vehicles, majority of tow trucks and pretty much anybody who wants them use amber lights as a visual warning.

Funeral processions use purple as a courtesy light, but this can be negated by the hiring of a police escort.

Green is allowed for volunteer fire and volunteer medical response agencies, but without a siren. It is also used as a light to denote the incident command vehicle on a scene.

Mine rescue uses red lights as well.

Ontario law specifically prohibits the use of forward facing red lights on anything that is not a designated emergency vehicle. And no vehicle (other than police) may have any pairing of flashing red and blue lights. Impersonating an emergency vehicle through appearance or lights is at police discretion it appears, as to whether or not a citation is issued.

I now live in Central Wisconsin but when I used to live west of the Eau Claire area this was sometimes a problem for me. To avoid the headache I never “hard” installed any of my warning lights. I never did have an issue on the few occasions I left my lights on the dash when I crossed over into Minn, however I did get questioned one time by a Saint Paul officer in regards to my radio scanner. Mobile or scanner use in a motor vehicle is illegal in Minn unless you are a sworn officer. As a professional courtesy he did not write me on it, I was not running the scanner at the time he stopped me for my out tail light I was not aware of.

Blue for Law Enforcement
Red for Fire/EMS
White Universal
Amber Universal/Other Warning Vehicles
Green/Purple ECT for…whatever? LoL

PURPLE is used for FUNERALS

dsiskhxg…

Every other color (red, blue, green, purple, chartreuse…) is reserved for emergency vehicles only, as designated by the State Department of Transportation. Any emergency vehicle can use any color or combination of colors.