Non-police crisis teams to expand across the entire TTC network
Mayor Chow moved to expand the Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS), trained crisis workers who respond to mental-health emergencies instead of police, across the whole TTC after a downtown subway pilot served 2,840 riders in crisis with a 98% diversion rate away from police. Six deputants spoke, all in support, several sharing personal transit encounters. Councillors framed it as a signature achievement of the term and pushed for street-car coverage and better public awareness.
Who did what
- Mayor Olivia Chow movedMoved to expand the crisis-worker service across the entire TTC, citing 2,840 pilot cases and 783 people who had considered self-harm
- Councillor Alejandra Bravo (Ward 9) questioned staffQuestioned deputant and staff on built-in evaluation, quality, and provincial healthcare handoff before further expansion
- Councillor Ausma Malik (Ward 10) questioned staffAsked staff about paramedic dispatch integration, streetcar availability and response times; praised the program
From the floor
“Efficiency is using the right tool for the right job. And here what we've done is looked and realized we didn't have the right tools.”Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 4)
“Think about this service and then think about ICE, and you get a sense of why Toronto is a leader.”Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 4)
“Mental health, the word health is a provincial federal responsibility, and we need to talk to our senior other orders of government to say please look at this data.”Mayor Olivia Chow
“Of all the 211 calls that were made by transit riders, only 2% of them involved the police and only 6% involved special constables.”Speaker not identified
“We know just policing people and locking them up won't solve our problems. We've been doing that for decades.”Speaker not identified
Also in this item
• TTC pilot in the downtown 'U' corridor served 2,840 riders in crisis with a 98% diversion rate away from police, and response times as low as five minutes.
• Dispatch integration with Toronto Paramedic Services via the 911 system is targeted for Q1 2027, letting crisis calls be routed faster while 211 remains the public door.
• Of the pilot cases, 783 people had thought about harming themselves, underscoring the suicide-intervention role of the service.
• Toronto Police are described as increasingly willing to hand off mental-health calls to TCCS, with police now reconfiguring their own uniformed crisis response.
The journey
What happens next
As an Executive Committee item it proceeds toward City Council; residents can contact their councillor before the Council vote. Staff also flagged an ongoing 'make the right call' awareness campaign and a MAP Centre evaluation report due at year-end.
Decision
Mayor Chow moved a motion to expand the crisis-worker service across the entire TTC network; deputations and member speeches were uniformly supportive. The final committee vote is not captured in the transcript excerpt.
Watch it happen
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