Ontario's government is providing South Simcoe Police (SSP) a major two-year investment into the service's crisis response team's efforts across Innisfil and Bradford.
Ontario Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney and Solicitor General Michael Kerzner made the announcement alongside Barrie-Innisfil MPP Andrea Khanjin and service members that SSP was receiving of a total of $145,000 in funding for their units.
The funding comes through the Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) Enhancement Grant ($120,000) and the Mental Health Supports for Public Safety Personnel program ($25,000).
Van Dyke says the funding will allow the service to have 24-hour coverage when it comes to responding to
"They'll be working a shift from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., during what we have determined through analytics to be our peak call volumes for crisis response," he said at the announcement. "It allows us to have better outcomes... the whole idea is to prevent a crisis incident from happening a second time."
The service's Crisis Outreach and Support Team (COAST) was launched in 2017 and responds to incidents that involve suicide, suspected overdoses, adverse symptoms from neurodevelopmental disorders or dementia, and others.
"Police officers across the province are often faced with serious situations involving individuals experiencing mental health and addictions emergencies," said Mulroney, who is also the MPP for York-Simcoe. "The [grant] will help ensure that residents in South Simcoe receive support from well‑trained officers during their most vulnerable moments.
In order to receive the grant, the service made an application to the province, which Kerzner said he was very happy to see from South Simcoe Police.
"It's a proactive approach that our government has made that we will come forward with grants that will help fight auto theft, keep a violent and repeat offenders off our streets, make sure that the health and welfare of our first responders are top of mind, and also that we have created programs like this so that we can pair up a healthcare practitioner with a police officer," he said.
For the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 period, the service was not a recipient, but for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 periods it received $117,865 from the grant.
Announced as an $18 million grant in September, representatives say $9 million of the MCRT Enhancement Grant funds crisis response teams of 36 police services and OPP detachments provincewide through 2026-27. Barrie Police Service and other OPP detachments in Simcoe County are also recipients of the most recent grant.
