More steps taken towards Saskatoon drug court

The calls for a drug treatment court in Saskatoon, made by Mayor Charlie Clark last week, have been heard by the provincial government.

Justice Minister, Don Morgan, said these courts have shown to be effective and that the provincial government took a “strong step” towards one coming to Saskatoon.

“It’s not in and of itself a solution or a silver bullet but it is a significant tool that can and should be used and has demonstrated some significant effectiveness in both Regina and Moose Jaw,” he said. “So for the last year or so the officials inside the ministry have been looking at it with regard to whether we can or should roll it out into Saskatoon as well.”

Morgan says they don’t want to bring a drug court to Saskatoon until they are sure they have partnerships with organizations in place to help with the program.

“In Regina one of the interesting things is [the drug treatment court] is tied to Kate’s Place. A lot of the female offenders don’t have a stable home or a stable place to live so Kate’s Place has been providing a good option for those people,” he said.

“So that is one of the things we’d want to look at in conjunction with any expansion of the program to other centres. We don’t know whether we have facilities like Kate’s place and we don’t know whether there’s the other entities that would be there too.”

Kate’s Place is a sober living residence and safe place for women who are trying to overcome their addictions.

Morgan says they don’t have a timeline yet for when the city would see a drug court, but they are moving forward with the process as quick as they can.

“I don’t have [a timeline] and we have not made a submission to cabinet yet. I have asked the officials within the ministry to look at it as quickly as we can so we can start to make some decisions or assemble some things to move forward,” he said.

“It is not a problem that is unique to Saskatoon it’s actually a global problem but it’s certainly very bad in our province. So everything we can do that offers supports to addicts and addicts families are things that we should consider carefully.”