Union says city should hire more firefighters instead of paying consultant to create mental-health emergency service

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2025 (297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s firefighters union says the city should spend more on the three emergency services it has now, rather than adding a fourth branch to handle mental-health calls.

Others attending Tuesday’s meeting of the mayor’s executive policy committee said they wanted the city to get the fourth emergency service in place as soon as possible.

Mayor Scott Gillingham’s proposal to pay a consultant to design the Winnipeg Community Crisis Response Service drew a mixed response at the meeting.

United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg president Nick Kasper urged EPC to scrap the contract and hire more firefighters instead.

“Here we are… (seeking) yet another consultant review when we have an emergency service that exists today that’s in crisis, that needs help and we’re not allocating the resources,” Kasper said during an interview.

EPC, the mayor’s inner circle, cast a final vote to approve the consultant’s contract late Tuesday afternoon.

Gillingham’s motion calls for awarding a $228,000 contract to Pensa Consulting Inc. to establish a Winnipeg Community Crisis Response Service.

Kasper said the city would be much better off spending $300,000 to $400,000 to hire 10 additional firefighters next year, on top of 10 new firefighter positions already included in the city’s 2026 preliminary budget.

“(This) would save money on overtime and improve the mental and physical health of our staff,” he said.

Kasper said a staff shortage has contributed to a surge in overtime and Workers Compensation Board claims, while the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service is short “80 critical positions.”

Kasper said he believes the existing provincial Crisis Response Service and the Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis program that pairs Winnipeg Police Service officers with provincial mental-health clinicians provide similar services to the one being proposed at the city level. Expanding those programs would make more sense than creating a new one, he said.

“There really isn’t a need to invest in another consultant’s report, hundreds of thousands of dollars, that would recommend replication of a model that already exists,” said Kasper.

Gillingham has long called for the fourth emergency service to answer wellness calls, in part to reduce their strain on police and other emergency responders.

During the EPC meeting, he suggested easing that demand would free up emergency responders to fulfil their core duties, such as fighting fires, answering emergency medical calls or enforcing the law.

“If (we) dispatch mental-health workers to mental-health calls, it is less likely that firefighters would be required to go to mental-health calls, thereby increasing availability (for) response to fires,” he said.

In an interview, the mayor called Kasper’s comments “baffling.”

“He’s asking to put more staff into a system that’s not working. It’s much better that we get people the help that they need, if they’re calling in a mental-health crisis,” said Gillingham.

Delegates who spoke in support of the idea urged EPC to get it in place quickly.

To address mental-health crises, the city should remove such calls from the police queue and ensure a focus on medical response instead of enforcement, said Kate Kehler, executive director of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.

“We need this fourth service… as soon as possible,” said Kehler.

Rebecca Nicholls, a community animator with the Social Planning Council, agreed.

“We need to reduce the burden on the Winnipeg Police Service by taking away calls, which (are) outside their scope of expertise,” said Nicholls.

For the fifth consecutive year in 2024, well-being checks remained the top reason police were dispatched to answer citizen calls for help. Such calls triggered responses more than 21,000 times, according to a WPS report.

The new service would handle calls that do not involve threats to safety or medical intervention.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga