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Under the proposal, which has support from both the Winnipeg Police Service and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, a centralized crisis dispatch and co-ordination hub would receive triaged calls and match them with citywide response teams, staffed in part through existing community organizations, including the Downtown Community Safety Partnership and The Link\u2019s mobile crisis teams. The goal is to divert appropriate calls away from the WPS and WFPS.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see the parallel in the positioning there in Winnipeg,\u201d Dilya Niezova, Toronto\u2019s community development manager and manager of the city\u2019s Alternative Safety Response Unit, told the Free Press, adding that city officials from Winnipeg met with their Toronto counterparts to discuss Toronto\u2019s service.<\/p>\n
Niezova said Toronto\u2019s program grew out of years of advocacy from community organizations, with the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 accelerating conversations about rethinking crisis response.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt brought forward some really important conversations about how crisis response could better prioritize health, safety and equity,\u201d Niezova said.<\/p>\n
Consultations with community groups, people with lived experience, police and paramedics all pointed to the same conclusion: there was a need for a health-led, community-based response to mental health crises.<\/p>\n
The pilot launched in 2022 and, after demonstrating success, was expanded across the city by Toronto council. At the end of 2025, the city also introduced a dedicated crisis response team for its subway system.<\/p>\n
In 2025, Toronto\u2019s 911 service received about 1.6 million calls, including roughly 27,000 related to mental health.<\/p>\n
Of those, Niezova said, 4,482 calls were diverted to the crisis response service, with about 88 per cent resolved without police involvement. Just 2.3 per cent ultimately required emergency services, such as paramedics or police, because the situation escalated.<\/p>\n
By 2031, the city hopes to divert 10,000 calls annually.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have never really positioned Toronto Community Crisis Service as a service that can handle every single mental health crisis call,\u201d Niezova said. \u201cThere are some that will still need other emergency services. What we\u2019re trying to do is create some space and pathway here for those ones that would benefit much more from a non-police led response, a more help-focused response.\u201d<\/p>\n
Niezova added that Toronto has been promoting its 211 line, including with a campaign called Make the Right Call, encouraging people to contact 211 for mental health-related calls.<\/p>\n
She said the service also includes followup support through case management, referrals and connections to community resources \u2014 an approach that is also built into Winnipeg\u2019s proposed model.<\/p>\n
Niezova said an independent evaluation by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the country\u2019s largest mental health teaching hospital, concluded that its service is \u201ceffectively reaching its intended population.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s providing safe and appropriate crisis response \u2026 clients are having a good experience and they\u2019re valuing the experience that they\u2019re having,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that community partners and first responders are also co-ordinating services in an effective way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto fully funds the program, budgeting more than $37 million for it in 2026. Winnipeg has estimated its proposed service would cost about $6 million to launch, but the city is asking the province to help fund it, though Gillingham wouldn\u2019t say what the monetary ask is.<\/p>\n
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The province would not comment on the proposal earlier this week.<\/p>\n
A third-party report from Pensa Consulting concluded that 3,855 Winnipeg Police Service calls \u2014 or nearly 8,000 hours of officer time \u2014 and 6,356 Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service calls could be redirected to a community response model annually.<\/p>\n
WPS Chief Gene Bowers said his service handles around 20,000 well-being checks a year, or about 53 per day.<\/p>\n
City council will consider the proposal in September.<\/p>\n
scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n
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Scott Billeck Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade\u2019s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.\u00a0 Read more about Scott<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
Reporter
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