REGINA — Questions have swirled at the Legislature this week on what the next steps are for the government following the closure of Prairie Harm Reduction in Saskatoon.
Prairie Harm Reduction announced its permanent closure April 9 in the wake of financial problems that have hit the organization. Prairie Harm Reduction had operated the province’s only supervised injection site.
On Monday at the SUMA convention, Premier Scott Moe was asked by reporters about the government’s plans after the closure of Prairie Harm Reduction. Moe noted the government had gotten several questions around the closure of Prairie Harm Reduction in the dialogue session between municipal leaders with Social Services Minister Terry Jenson and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Lori Carr.
Moe emphasized that the government has “never funded the supervised injection site of Prairie Harm Reduction. That does not line up with our government's approach to recovery and ensuring that we're moving people down through that recovery-oriented system of care.”
Other services were funded, however. Moe noted his ministers were working to figure out alternatives for those.
“I know Minister (Terry) Jenson and Minister (Lori) Carr are both working actively with community-based organizations on the west side of Saskatoon to figure out how we can ensure those services continue on to help those affected individuals.”
Carr told reporters this week she had been working and speaking with community-based organizations.
She said there will “probably be a transition of service to other community-based organizations, so those individuals will just be getting their services elsewhere.”
But concerns have been raised from the Opposition on a number of fronts. On Monday, the Opposition demanded that the Saskatchewan Health Authority or Social Services immediately rehire the 126 employees who lost their jobs due to the closure.
“We can’t afford fewer frontline health-care workers,” said Betty Nippi-Albright, critic for Mental Health & Addictions, in a statement. “These incredible individuals provided housing services, mental health supports, addictions treatment and other critical programs and assistance.”
When asked about those concerns, Carr said there are jobs available for those displaced.
“If there’s a health-care worker out there that’s qualified we have several jobs available at the Health Authority, as well as community-based organizations that will be looking for individuals. So by all means, I encourage them to find an organization they like and apply to that organization.”
By midweek, the Opposition was raising concerns about a spike in overdoses in Saskatoon. In a statement, they pointed to the Saskatoon Fire Department reporting more than 10 overdose calls per day in Saskatoon over the first 12 days of April.
When asked about the situation on Wednesday, Premier Moe reiterated to reporters the need was to “get drugs out of our community… we need to offer recovery opportunities to each one of those individuals that unfortunately has fallen into a life of addiction.”
He pointed to the province building capacity with “over 300 recovery beds in place today and 200 more funded in this budget, which is where we will achieve our 500 (bed) commitment that we had made a couple of years ago.”
Moe stressed their goal is a “recovery-oriented system of care,” providing those pathways into that recovery journey through shelters, referrals and other opportunities. He also called for law enforcement officers to “continue doing the good work that you’re doing, making every effort to keep our community safe by removing not just a drug dealer, but removing his drugs from our community.”
Dim view of the situation from the NDP
The NDP’s health critic Meara Conway was asked about the Prairie Harm Reduction closure on Tuesday, as well as the overdose situation in Saskatoon, and voiced her alarm at what she saw happening.
“I think that as soon as we heard the news… about the loss of these services overnight, we were bracing ourselves for further chaos and crisis,” said Conway.
She spoke of going to Saskatoon about two months earlier and meeting with emergency room staff at St. Paul’s Hospital, and spoke of how overburdened health-care providers are, and about what further strain they will be under with the closure.
“We knew that as soon as this decision was made to pull the carpet from out from under people, that it was just going to add incredible pressure to emergency rooms that are already beyond the brink.”
Conway also voiced concern about the loss of the “breadth of services that was offered by Prairie Harm Reduction.” While she acknowledged a lot of attention is on the safe consumption site, Conway pointed out they “did supportive housing. They worked with families that were involved with social services. They do a number of other things with all of those services are now gone at a time when those community services are more important than ever.”
“We will continue to see emergency rooms bursting at the seams. It’s not an effective way of dealing with these social issues, it’s a very costly way of dealing with these issues. It will mean more pressure and burnout on health-care providers who are already beyond their breaking point. It is a mess. It’s a mess on many levels.”
