The newest chief of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) is officially on the job.
Christian Schmidt, who took over for the retired John Lane, told 680 CJOB he’s already engaged in a couple of large projects — namely dealing with animosity between firefighters and paramedics, and addressing the findings of a report alleging racial bias in the service.
“Several months ago, we initiated Phase 1 of a three-phase project in order to address the culture issues in our service,” Schmidt said.
“The results are in, so we’re going to be reviewing those with the labour leadership.”
Solving the cultural issues that face the service isn’t going to be easy, but Schmidt said he remains confident that it’s a solvable problem.
“We need to work together to see how we’re going to get there. For some people, that is going to be a very easy shift. For other people, it’ll be difficult and they’ll need assistance along the way, but we’ll do it.”
Schmidt said the WFPS is also working on more efficient resource deployment, which includes having paramedics call out to people at the scene first, instead of automatically dispatching fire trucks to what might turn out to be a mental health crisis.
“In the last two months here, we’ve started having our community-based paramedics do some of these calls by phone — so they actually call out to the scene, speak with people at the scene and determine what resources are needed, and we’re seeing some real benefits.”
The new chief, who has spent 27 years as a first responder in Winnipeg — the past eight as deputy chief, operations and 911 communications — was selected as Lane’s replacement last month, when Lane announced his retirement after 40 years of service.
According to a July news release from the city, Schmidt was chosen for his “ability to build strong working relationships within the City of Winnipeg and with local and national stakeholders,” as well as his experience in both paramedicine and firefighting, and his knowledge of criminology.
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