“We believe hundreds more people have actually died or caused serious harm to their health as a result of a drug overdose — we hear countless heartbreaking stories every day,” said Betty Nippi-Albright, Saskatchewan NDP Shadow Minister for Mental Health & Addictions.
“The Sask. Party government sits on its hands while young people — our future leaders — die after using the drugs that are flooding into our streets. The impact of this drug crisis is hard to fathom — people no longer feel safe in the downtown cores of our major cities, crime rates have skyrocketed and we will never know the true human cost.”
The Coroners Service reports that between Jan. 1 and Aug. 1 — a period of 212 days — there have been 210 confirmed or suspected drug toxicity deaths in Saskatchewan. Frontline support agencies in Saskatoon, specifically, have claimed the number of overdoes in the city are already on track to surpass the total for all of 2024.
Nippi-Albright has been relentless in calling the Sask. Party government out for questionable use of critical funding to address mental health and addictions. The Government wasted more than $1.5 million on the Willowview facility near Lumsden that was delated nearly a year and still isn’t operating close to the capacity originally promised.
Nippi-Albright said she continues to hear troubling reports of patients leaving Willowview before completing treatment and many are not being set up with proper discharge and treatment plans before leaving.
“That facility receives $7.6 million a year of public funding and is supposed to be running 60 inpatient beds — but we continue to hear only 20 are actually online,” Nippi-Albright said.
“The people behind this facility have attempted to replace inpatient treatment with webcam medicine. Successful recovery from substance use harm requires human connection and interaction — not a computer screen. How is a Zoom call supposed to save someone's life, especially when they are withdrawing from opioid addiction?"
Nippi-Albright called on Sask. Party Mental Health & Addictions Minister Lori Carr to:
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Publish long-promised reports concerning the operations and results of Willowview and all similar treatment facilities;
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Develop, publish and immediately implement an emergency action plan that would see more funding flow to frontline healthcare services specifically focused on prevention of drug deaths and mental health supports;
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Improve tracking and public reporting of drug toxicity deaths in Saskatchewan.
“The Sask. Party has had 18 years to address the drug crisis in our province,” Nippi-Albright said.
“Instead, they’ve driven healthcare to last place in the country. They broke the system and can’t be trusted to fix it.
“It’s time for a government that’s focused on saving lives, on building a future for our province where people can access treatment and life-saving medical and mental health supports.”
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