The Canadian Union of Public Employees says Saskatchewan’s current addictions crisis is the direct result of neglect by the provincial government. The union says the Sask. Party government must now act quickly to slow the record number of addiction related deaths.

CUPE says the centre of the crisis is a lack of treatment centres, creating longer wait times. The union says the wait times have only increased with the closure of Pine Lodge Treatment Centre last December; a facility which they say has been called one of the finest in-patient treatment centres in western Canada. CUPE says, since a fire devastated Pine Lodge on Christmas Eve, the province has taken no action to either rebuild the facility or secure a new location.

CUPE Saskatchewan president Judy Henley says, “We have qualified addictions treatment workers with years of experience who are left sitting on their hands because patients can’t get to treatment,” She says, “People are dying in record numbers, and yet the province is not even talking about this, let alone taking the action that is needed.”

According to CUPE, the current crisis in addictions has reached a level never before seen in this province and is the direct result of many years of neglect. The combined confirmed and suspected drug toxicity deaths in Saskatchewan skyrocketed in 2020 to 345, almost double the drug toxicity deaths from 2019, and four times the number of confirmed deaths in 2010. The Saskatchewan Coroners Service is already reporting 75 suspected or confirmed drug toxicity deaths in the first two months of 2021.