The Pas will see a new mental health worker hired and more community safety planning following a $216,000 investment from the provincial government. Justice Minister Matt Wiebe announced the funding on June 19, 2026, with the money coming from the province’s public safety strategy.
The investment includes $156,000 for a community mobilization effort, with $86,000 going toward a dedicated mental health worker and $70,000 set aside for running the program. The rest of the funding will support ongoing community safety and well-being planning.
The plan for The Pas was completed in 2025 through a provincial pilot project run with the Canadian Centre for Safer Communities. It came together after hearing from 792 residents through surveys and 97 more in community meetings. In those surveys, 80 per cent of people said they were unhappy with their sense of personal safety in town.
The new mental health worker will take a grassroots approach, working directly with at-risk residents and connecting them to services. This lines up with one of the top concerns residents raised in the planning process, which was mental health and substance use.
Since 2023, the Manitoba government has committed $1.8 million for community safety and well-being planning right across the province. The wider public safety strategy, released in November 2024, promises to hire 100 mental health workers to work alongside first responders in communities like The Pas.
