Over the last 10 days, Saskatoon’s Fire Department reports receiving 213 overdose calls.
Saskatoon Deputy Fire Chief Rob Hogan says Saskatoon has seen spurts like this is the past, but none that have lasted this long.
“In January, we had about five days where we had an uptick. We were looking at 8, 13, 16, 12 overdoses. Then early in February we had one. On the 6th we had nine, and on the 9th we had 12, but this has been a prolonged, ten-day, sustained overdose (spurt).”
To put these numbers into context, in March of 2024, the SFD received 21 overdose calls. So far this month, there have been 111, which is a 400 per cent increase.
Hogan says this significant increase in overdoses began with 16 calls on February 24th and hasn’t slowed down since. In fact, it ramped up.
Overdoses per day reported to SFD
February 24th- 16
February 25th- 20
February 26th- 9
February 27th- 21
February 28th- 13
March 1st- 24
March 2nd- 22
March 3rd- 18
March 4th- 18
March 5th- 37
This is an average of 18 overdoses per day. He adds that these figures don’t include separate calls to police or EMS that the SFD may not have been alerted about.
Hogan was not able to confirm if these overdoses resulted in deaths, however he did say that in the last 24 hours, there have been a few cases of people in their mid-twenties dying without due cause. He suspects drugs played a factor.
The majority of the calls have come from “The core, from downtown. Down 20th or 22nd Street, down to the west end, and then up Idywyld drive, but there is quite a few happening in the other areas of the city, as well…Pretty much all the neighborhoods in the city.”
He adds that it wasn’t uncommon to see the same individual overdose multiple times in the same ten-day period.
Saskatoon’s Emergency Management Officer, Pamela Goulden-McLeod, has reached out to other cities with EMO officers, and Hogan says the response she received was surprising.
“No one else is going through this. This is a Saskatoon issue,” he admits, however he doesn’t believe it is Saskatoon’s issue, as in his view, it’s the province’s responsibility to find a solution.
Spokesperson for the Saskatoon Police Service Kelsie Fraser says police officers are not normally sent out to overdose calls, but in light of the recent increase, they’ve been told to respond whenever possible. The police service is also conducting a mass investigation into these overdoses to identify drug sources and disrupt distribution.
Prairie Harm Reduction is asking for donations so they can purchase additional naloxone, however the medication is reported to have not been working on some overdose victims over the past two weeks.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Health and Saskatchewan Health Authority issued a statement alerting the public to a heightened risk of overdose and death from illicit drugs in the Saskatoon area.
-with files from Discover Humboldt