City Needs to Step UP

On April 1, 2021, the Main Street Project was forced to eliminate its daytime response service. The City of Winnipeg, Winnipeg Police Service (WPS), and Winnipeg Fire, Paramedic Service (WFPS) all call the Main Street Project's Van Response Team to help an individual that WPS or WFPS are not suited to assist appropriately.

The Main Street Project response service operated 24-hours a day until today when it lost partial funding. The outreach response van will only operate between midnight, and 7:00 am.

When Main Street Project requested $400,000, City Council responded by directing the Public Service to provide a report.

"Main Street does not charge the City of Winnipeg for their services. The cost of having WPS or WFPS respond will be three to four times higher than the $400,000 requested. I want to focus on results for Winnipeg, not more reports and delays," said Councillor Klein.

While interviewing Jamil Mahood, Executive Director of Main Street Project, Klein, on behalf of the residents in Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood, donated $1,000 and challenged his council colleagues to match that amount.

Klein said, "I'm trying to be a part of the solution because I worry a lot when I think about our city's future. The Main Street Project's response van is a good investment of city funds. In 2020 many of my council colleagues approved over $2 million for extra legal costs, "that was certainly not a good investment of city funds," said Klein.

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