Prince Albert’s Community Safety and Well-Being Division is preparing to launch a Mobile Complex Needs Team after city council approved a $3.6 million federal grant from Health Canada’s Emergency Treatment Fund.
The initiative brings together the Prince Albert Police Service, Parkland Ambulance, and the Prince Albert Mobile Crisis Unit to create a coordinated 24-hour response for people facing substance use or mental health crises. The goal is to reduce overdoses, free up emergency resources, and connect residents to long-term care.
“One of the key issues raised again and again through our stakeholder forums was the need for an alternative response for people experiencing acute substance use or mental health crisis,” said Anna Dinsdale, the city’s community safety and well-being manager. “This grant gives us the opportunity to meet that need and to take pressure off our emergency services.”
The team will operate city-wide with dedicated vehicles and personnel from each partner agency. Dinsdale said it will allow responders to reach people faster and coordinate care more effectively.
“Depending on what’s happening with any individual, the response might be medical, public safety, or social support,” she said. “This approach allows those services to wrap around the person and provide ongoing care coordination for individuals who might otherwise struggle to access services consistently.”
Recruitment is already underway for 12 new positions, including crisis workers with backgrounds in social work, substance use counselling, and human services. Paramedics and police will also assign staff with specialized training to the program.
“Mobile Crisis is recruiting now,” Dinsdale said. “These workers will provide wraparound supports and field counselling, while medical personnel will assess whether someone needs hospital care or can receive treatment in the community. The goal is to fill service gaps, not duplicate what already exists.”
The City will monitor outcomes through data partnerships and evaluation requirements tied to the grant. Metrics will include the number of residents accessing services, increased referrals to treatment programs, and reduced emergency room admissions or police cell detentions related to intoxication.
Dinsdale said the initiative is separate from the upcoming provincially funded Complex Needs Facility but designed to complement it.
“The facility and the mobile team are distinct projects, but they dovetail nicely,” she said. “Not everyone will meet the threshold for that facility. The mobile team will reach others in the community who need coordinated support.”
The Mobile Complex Needs Team is expected to begin operations by early 2026, with some services possibly active as soon as January.
“We’re moving quickly,” Dinsdale said. “This program is designed to mobilize fast, and we’re hopeful it will have a real impact, not just on overdose rates but on easing the strain on emergency services.”
Mayor Bill Powalinsky said the funding represents a major step toward imporving community safety and wellness in Prince Albert.
“It’s really about finding rapid ways to decrease overdose risk in municipalities,” Powalinsky said. “Although our total numbers are not high, our rate per 100,000 residents is higher than Saskatoon, so we are actually in worse shape. This helps us address that gap directly.”
He said the project aligns with the City’s long-term wellness strategy by giving agencies the resources more effectively together.
“Emergency medical services don’t have the ability to deal with calls that involve a social factor, and they’re mandated to transport people to the hospital event if that isn’t the best solution,” he said. “By pulling all these resources together, these organizations can move ahead as a dedicated team, play to each other’s strengths, and provide safer, more effeicient service for clients and the public.”
Powalinsky added that the initiative fits within the City’s broader vision of being a healthy, inclusive, and forward-looking community
“We don’t want to be turning people away because they have challenges to deal with,” he said “We want to be a healthy community in evety sense, mental, physical, and economic. This project checks those boxes, and it also reflects diversity in both the people we serve and in the solutions we need.”
He said the City plans to advocate for long-term funding once the pilot phase ends and pointed to the program as part of a broader effort to address addiction, housing, and mental health needs.
“We’re addressing these important issues piece by piece,”Powalinsky said. “When you look at what’s coming together, the shelter, the complex needs facility, this new mobile team, you can see the bigger picture of how Prince Albert is building a more connected, compassionate system of care.”
