Nine lives lost — and the month isn’t over yet.
The devastating pace of Saskatoon’s fentanyl overdose crisis was set in sharp relief as government officials revealed the death toll on Tuesday.
The mayor, paramedics, along with representatives from the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA), the Saskatoon Police Service, the Ministry of Health and the Saskatoon Fire Department held a press conference to outline how they’re joining forces to tackle the crisis.
The Saskatoon Fire Department is responding to about 19 overdoses per day.
Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health said it’s temporarily adding four paramedics and expanding outreach teams. The government is also supplying more naloxone kits and testing strips.
“We’re trying to mitigate future loss of life, mitigate future overdoses,” Marlo Pritchard, president of the SPSA, announced at the press conference.
Between March 1 to 18, the fire department responded to 435 overdose calls — far surpassing the 291 overdose calls it handled in the entirety of 2024.
“There would be a worry that the [fentanyl] supply could get to Regina, or Prince Albert, or across the across the province,” Saskatoon Police Insp. Erin Coates said.
“We have a number of investigations going on since the overdoses happened.”
Saskatoon police have arrested 25 people related to fentanyl trafficking, according to Coates.
Mayor Cynthia Block said part of the solution to the crisis is housing.
“The overdose crisis is what we’re here to talk about today, but this is also amid the foundational crisis of homelessness in our city,” Block said.
“Housing is foundational to the way forward.”
Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR) — Saskatoon’s safe consumption site, a key player in the city’s overdose response — was missing from the conversation.
The site closed its doors until the end of the month to give staff, exhausted and traumatized from repeatedly performing CPR, a break.
But in a news release Tuesday evening, PHR’s executive director laid some of the blame for the ongoing crisis on the lack of meaningful action or support from the province.
“People are dying, and the government’s response remains inadequate. Harm reduction services — safe consumption sites, drug testing, and a regulated supply — save lives. Yet, despite the mounting death toll, Saskatchewan continues to underfund and ignore these evidence-based solutions,” said Kayla DeMong, PHR’s director, in the statement.
“Overdose deaths are preventable. But prevention requires action — not just words. We need investments in harm reduction, increased access to treatment on demand, and policies based on public health, not politics.”
Officials from PHR are holding a press conference Wednesday to share their view from the heart of the overdose crisis.
