Internal briefing notes said recent investments had not improved harm reduction services provided by the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
That’s a central message of a new report from the province’s drug task force, which consulted dozens of community groups, leaders and people who use drugs as the overdose death toll reaches record heights.
“That’s been the biggest problem that I’ve seen with the Sask. Party on the addictions crisis,” Prairie Harm Reduction executive director Jason Mercredi said on Friday, before the report was released. The task force — comprised of bureaucrats, community leaders and police chiefs — was first formed in 2017 and was revamped in 2020 as the death toll climbed.
Homelessness and drug overdoses like the one that occurred at Regina’s Camp Marjorie were often overlooked during another year of COVID-19.The groups also pointed to deeper, systemic issues like homelessness, discrimination against Indigenous people and poverty that were all feeding the crisis. The “current government housing programs are setting individuals up for failure and eventual homelessness,” one note stated.
He acknowledged the COVID-19 pandemic — which sapped staff and resources away from other health issues — had frustrated progress.
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