Prairie Harm Reduction in Saskatoon was this province's first approved safe injection site. ( Brady Lang/CKOM)

By Glenn Hicks

safe places

Harm reduction advocate hopes to bring safe injection site to P.A.

Mar 19, 2021 | 5:00 PM

A woman with roots in Prince Albert hopes to return to the city to set up a harm reduction centre that would include a safe injection site. The idea is still very much in its infancy and there are plans for community engagement.

Katelyn Loseth-McKelvie, who graduated from high school in P.A., is a policy analyst working with various government organizations and has also volunteered with the likes of STR8 UP – the program helping those wanting to exit gang life – and the Elizabeth Fry Society which advocates for disadvantaged women.

Loseth-McKelvie is heartened by the recent approval for safe injection sites in Saskatoon and Regina and says Prince Albert’s need to have one is just as important.

“P.A is such a transient hub,” she told paNOW. “It has a lower population than Saskatoon and Regina but has a higher number of people moving through and that’s putting a huge strain on the resources already here.”

She said there is a growing understanding among the public for the need to have a place for addicts to use drugs safely and for them to seek help on services because of the wider benefits that brings across society.

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“We see there’s a high level of overdoses, deaths, HIV/Aids, high levels of crime and it’s going up. It’s definitely time to add another tool to the toolbox,” she said.

Loseth-McKelvie launched a GoFundMe campaign at the beginning of this week to raise monies to cover the cost of registering her Prince Albert Harm Reduction Coalition as a non-profit charitable organization, and it surpassed that goal almost immediately.

“Once we’re legally organized we can fundraise on a larger scale. At the end of the day we have people who are interested and we have access to the research and knowledge; our biggest need is money,” she explained.

She said she has the support of some former city councillors, medical professionals and social workers although she’s not yet naming anyone because things are still in the consulting stage. But she acknowledges there needs to be community outreach. She and fellow volunteers will promote the idea during a needle clean up in P.A next month and she plans virtual town hall style meetings in the summer to discuss the initiative with the public.

“We want to hear any concerns from the public. If we don’t have support from the community we won’t be able to influence city officials and if the people of P.A don’t want this service then we’re going to be facing an uphill battle,” she said.

A man who knows all about the risks facing drug users in the city is Brian Umpherville, who works in harm reduction for the P.A. Metis Women’s Association. He thinks the time is right for a safe injection site.

“A safe injection site brings clean needles and a safe, professionally monitored space,” he said. “If [users] pass out and it’s well below zero outside [that’s dangerous]. There are a lot of places around here where if they overdosed or passed out no one would notice.”

Umpherville said the majority of drug users he’s dealt with have told him they’d prefer to have a safe injection site.

The cost of running such a centre is not small. Prairie Harm Reduction, the site of Saskatchewan’s only functional safe injection site, which is in Saskatoon, has called on the provincial government to fund it to the tune of $1.3 million. The government has not committed to that and it remains to be seen what supports will come from the April 6 budget.

Meanwhile the opposition NDP said it was encouraging to see a move to take action in Prince Albert, in light of the overdose crisis that “is spiralling out of control,” across the province according to health critic Vicki Mowat.

“Overdose deaths continue to rise and we’ve called on government to take responsibility for these deaths and to take actions that are going to address the crisis in a meaningful way,” Mowat told paNOW, noting there has long been a need for evidence-based harm reduction. “One of those ways is to approve and fund safe consumption sites throughout the province where possible.”

Referring to the funding being sought by the likes of the Saskatoon safe injection site Mowat said it was not a substantial amount.

“This is a drop in the bucket in the overall picture of the government’s near $6 billion budget in health spending. Overdoses are taking a very heavy toll on our communities. It’s very scary there are unsafe drugs out there and during the pandemic we’ve seen increased mental health issues coming forward.”

In an email the Saskatchewan Government said it understood “addressing overdoses in Saskatchewan cannot be a one-size-fits-all strategy, and that is why we continue to collaborate with stakeholders across the province. “

It added in 2020-21, the health system is investing more than $434.5 million in mental health and addictions programs and services, including a $630,000 increase for harm reduction. This brings our total investment in harm reduction programs and services to $1.75 million in 2020-21, an increase of more than 350% since 2007, according to their email.

Further initiatives are being considered as part of the budget process. The 2021-22 Budget will be tabled on April 6.

Editor’s note: this story was amended to include comment from the government.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @princealbertnow