Some municipalities in Manitoba are renewing calls for the province to make legislative changes to reduce the role police play in responding to crises as rural and northern communities deal with staffing challenges with law enforcement and an increase in mental health calls.
This comes more than a year after the NDP government committed to an extensive review of the Mental Health Act after families and advocates pressed for system changes. Winnipeg police have also voiced support for an approach that would see mental health groups take the lead on non-violent calls.
Right now, the legislation dictates that peace officers are the only people able to detain someone experiencing a mental health crisis and often the only ones able to transport individuals to a facility.
“The current model is unsustainable and is a grossly ineffective use of resources,” said Lisa Gaudet, deputy city manager in Dauphin, Man.
Gaudet said the landscape of mental health care has evolved in recent years and the act hasn’t kept up in pace. Rural and northern areas, along with urban centres, have seen the response to mental health emergencies become a growing part of front-line public service and police work, she added.
The city, 330 kilometres west of Winnipeg, is calling for the provincial government to undertake a comprehensive review of the Mental Health Act in consultation with municipalities, law enforcement agencies, health authorities and Indigenous leadership.
A resolution is being put forward by the city at this month’s Association of Manitoba Municipalities fall convention, asking the organization to help lobby the province to make changes to the legislation.
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The resolution calls for: mobile crisis response teams; a provincewide mental health patient transportation service; limiting the requirement for police to remain at health facilities with a non-violent patient; and expanding mental health support programs in rural and northern communities.
Gaudet said mental health services are often being off-loaded to municipalities and non-profit organizations that are not equipped to deal with those specific crises.
For example, in Dauphin, if a youth or an elderly person is experiencing a mental health crisis, it’s an automatic referral to Winnipeg or Brandon. Police are then in charge of transporting that person, which can be a stigmatizing experience, said Gaudet.
“This youth will likely never ask for help again because of this negative experience and in the meantime this trip to (Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre) would take one of our members away from duty for about 10 hours,” she said.
Data from Manitoba RCMP shows that from 2022 to 2024, officers spent an average of 659 hours per month waiting with patients or escorting them to hospitals or mental health facilities.
Municipalities are hearing from local detachments that a large chunk of resources are being allocated to monitoring individuals who are experiencing a mental health crisis. This is happening in places where staffing shortages are persistent, taking officers away from other calls.
Ches Bollman, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Elton, north of Brandon, said the issue has slowly been worsening over the last few years. The municipality has lent its support to Dauphin in pushing for a review of the mental health legislation.
“People seem to need more and more help these days,” Bollman said. “It’s a concern and it’s definitely not getting any better.
He said he would like to see a dedicated unit responding to wellness calls. “You don’t really need a policeman there … somebody else in that field that was trained to deal with that would probably be just as good, if not better.”
Bernadette Smith, Manitoba’s minister of housing, addictions and homelessness, said the government expects to begin consultations on overhauling the law in the new year.
“We know that a review of the Mental Health Act is a substantial undertaking. We have started work on an engagement strategy to ensure all Manitobans can connect with us on potential changes,” Smith said in a statement last week.
The province introduced institutional safety officers in various facilities in 2024, with the goal of having some of them being able to accept a mental health patient from police.
Gaudet called this a step in the right direction but said the deployment of these officers remains limited.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
