Prairie Harm Reduction ‘devastated’ to be excluded from provincial budget

For the third year in a row, Saskatoon’s Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR) has been passed over in the provincial budget.

The safe consumption site is the first one in the province, located in Saskatoon’s Pleasant Hill neighbourhood. It has been open for about 18 months, offering those who use drugs a safe place to do so under the observation of medical professionals.

In Wednesday’s budget, Finance Minister Donna Harpauer announced $470 million for mental health and addictions programs, but none of that money will be going towards either PHR or to the Newo-Yotina Friendship Centre in Regina, another safe consumption site.

PHR executive director Kayla DeMong said it’s crushing to be denied again.

“Why are you OK letting people die?” she asked Harpauer and Premier Scott Moe. “That’s really what it comes down to.

“It’s really devastating and deeply saddening that, again this year, the province chose not to invest any money in the safe consumption site.”

As with previous funding requests, DeMong put together a range of options for the province, hoping this year they would be included in the budget.

“Funding from the province would have allowed us to build more capacity and to ideally expand the hours that the safe consumption site is available,” DeMong said.

“We know that it’s being highly utilized, we know that it’s successfully preventing overdoses — and specifically overdose fatalities — and is engaging people in services.”

DeMong said that, since opening, PHR has had about 500 unique users and more than 3,500 visits. There have been just four overdoses and no deaths so far.

According to the coroners service, 464 people died of overdoses in Saskatchewan in 2021 after 327 died in 2020.

DeMong said if PHR was able to increase its hours each day, more people would use the facility.

“We have people coming in multiple times a day,” she added, recognizing other provinces do allocate money to safe consumption sites.

“Realistically, we’re about 10 years behind the rest of the country when it comes to harm reduction supports (and) supports for people living with HIV (and) preventing HIV transmission.”

She said Saskatchewan is dealing with a crystal meth crisis, an impending fentanyl crisis, and an ongoing overdose crisis.

“I don’t understand (the government’s) lack of strategic planning and strategic approach in funding for the province to start preventing some of these deaths,” DeMong said.

In January, after the coroner’s report was released, Addictions and Mental Health Minister Everett Hindley said the numbers were very concerning.

“These are friends, they’re family members (and) they’re people in our communities,” he said. “It’s an absolute tragic number of lives that are being lost.”