Saskatoon struggling with hundreds of overdoses in past month as city, province considers solutions

CBC News

· Posted: Mar 26, 2025 8:47 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

Saskatoon and assorted provincial bodies are grappling with an overdose situation that has overwhelmed frontline responders assemblage organizations often aiding those successful need.

The Saskatoon Fire Department has responded to 435 overdose incidents successful the metropolis from March 1 to 18, according to Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) president Marlo Pritchard. He said the fig of calls person precocious reduced but inactive stay supra the 2024 average.

Pritchard said determination person been 9 suspected overdose deaths since March 1.

"One decease is mode excessively many," Pritchard said during a quality league Tuesday afternoon.

On March 12, the Saskatchewan authorities announced it would activate its Provincial Emergency Operations Centre, led by the SPSA, successful effect to the "toxic cause crisis" successful Saskatoon.

The quality league was meant to supply an update to however the metropolis is managing the crisis. Pritchard spoke astir the ongoing enactment — similar exigency responders adjusting staffing to negociate resources and Saskatchewan's wellness ministry and wellness relation distributing take-home naloxone kits successful the city. 

Pritchard said the Saskatchewan Health ministry besides started a integer and printed selling run connected the cause alert system. The Ministry of Health is besides expected to temporarily supply up to 4 paramedics to the Saskatoon Fire Department.

Pritchard said the exigency operations centre's objectives are to found a mode for those responding to the situation to amended pass and to amended cod information to amended its response.

Last week, Saskatoon's lone supervised depletion tract announced it would adjacent until the extremity of the period to springiness reprieve to exhausted staff. The Saskatoon Public Library, which has complained successful the past astir a deficiency of "critical societal and wellness infrastructure," besides temporarily closed the doors to 2 branches. 

"This has a cascading interaction connected everyone other and the strategy has been stressed," said Saskatoon politician Cynthia Block.

Block pointed to a semipermanent solution: housing. She said metropolis assembly has approved 256 affordable lodging units successful the past six months, astir 70 per cent of which person wraparound supports.

Block said assembly has besides approved a survey for a navigational hub, meant to beryllium a one-stop store to assistance radical experiencing homelessness with services.

When asked astir however studies volition assistance the crisis, she said the survey for the hub is utilizing national dollars. She said that addressing homelessness volition instrumentality governmental volition to get the lodging units built soon and "to marque definite those wraparound supports are successful place."

"As Mr. Pritchard has mentioned, the value of betterment is foundational to that mode guardant arsenic well. But it's housing, we request to absorption steely connected that."

A typical with Saskatoon Police Service said 25 radical person been arrested for fentanyl trafficking oregon related offences since the emergence successful overdoses began and are continuing to investigate.