Saskatchewan NDP unveils plan to tackle addictions, says more funding needed

Saskatchewan's official Opposition has unveiled a plan it says will help tackle the province's ongoing addiction crisis and experts say it may help.

Saskatchewan’s official Opposition has unveiled a plan to tackle addictions, highlighting five key areas it says will reduce the number of toxic drug deaths in the province.

The NDP says the government’s current plan, released in 2023, which aims to create 500 new addiction treatment spaces, does not go far enough.

To date, the province has made 281 of these new spaces operational, but NDP mental health and addictions critic Betty Nippi-Albright says her party is putting pressure on the government to do more.

“That’s just a starting point; we need more than that,” Nippi-Albright said at a press conference Monday. “We also need to ensure that mental health supports are available so that people aren’t left to a last resort of using substances.”

The NDP’s five-point plan includes an increase in funding for harm reduction and inpatient treatment beds, more stabilization units, sober home funding, incentives for mental health professionals to work in remote or underserved communities and reserving involuntary treatment only for those posing a serious threat to themselves or others.

Global News reached out to the Ministry of Health for comment but didn’t get a response before deadline.

The executive director of a Saskatoon addiction treatment centre who has seen the impacts of addictions first-hand says addiction treatment facility wait times are a major issue she is noticing and hearing about from clients.

“On the low end, you’re probably waiting eight weeks. I’ve heard as high as three, six months wait-list for some things,” Kayla DeMong of Prairie Harm Reduction said.