The downtown Saskatoon library and another branch have closed for a month due to the drug crisis and Prairie Harm Reduction has closed until March 31.
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After six years of seemingly nonstop controversy, a new central library in downtown Saskatoon is taking shape.
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Opponents of the $134-million project questioned both the cost and the future of libraries and books in a digital age. Supporters see the new facility as a vital civic amenity and a critical addition to the downtown.
A blurb on the website for the new downtown library says: “Modern libraries serve as community hubs within cities and help address systemic social issues such as affordability, literacy, social isolation and exclusion.”
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But libraries must stay open to serve society. A few blocks southeast of where the First Nations tipi-inspired building is rising, the 58-year-old Frances Morrison Central Library has closed for at least a month — another sad victim of the tragic drug crisis overwhelming Saskatoon.
A news release Saturday said the rising tides of homelessness and “our community’s opioid poisoning crisis” have made it difficult for staff to provide “safe and effective library services” at Frances Morrison and at the Dr. Freda Ahenakew Library, located in the city’s crime-ridden Pleasant Hill neighbourhood.
Library staff have responded to 48 overdoses or drug poisonings so far this year, the release explains, which is more than double the number from a year ago. And the behaviour of visitors to the libraries has become violent and “challenging.”
The libraries will remain effectively closed for a month, while some limited services will resume in mid-April.
The NDP Opposition held a news conference across from the library Monday along with officials from the union that represents library workers. They said that based on data from local agencies, there have been an estimated 400 overdoses in Saskatoon so far in March.
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An alert from the Saskatchewan Health Authority last week confirms the Saskatoon Fire Department alone had responded to 350 overdoses since March 1. That includes “multiple suspicious deaths.”
Victims of the poisonous drugs are requiring four to five doses of naloxone, oxygen and attention from paramedics to be resuscitated, the alert adds.
And Prairie Harm Reduction, a local agency that receives no funding from the province, but appears to be crucial in the fight against toxic drugs, reports that brownish red chunks with dangerous levels of fentanyl are driving the current crisis.
“The fentanyl is having unusual, delayed effects, can cause sleepiness first, then stop breathing,” the SHA alert says.
Prairie Harm, meanwhile, also closed on Thursday until the end of the month due to the tragedy’s mental and emotional toll on staff/volunteers. “Our team needs to take some time to focus on themselves and the trauma they are experiencing from the overdose crisis,” says a social media post from Prairie Harm.
The team at the unfunded agency dedicated to saving lives plans to remain on the streets with water, food and naloxone while the drop-in centre and supervised consumption site on 20th Street in Pleasant Hill is closed until March 31.
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Despite the drug toxicity tsunami in Saskatoon, confirmed and suspected deaths connected to illicit narcotics in the province dropped by 29 per cent over the first two months of the year compared to the same period in 2024, according to the Saskatchewan Coroners Service.
That could reflect the heroic efforts of those toiling on the front lines of the war against opioids, or it could just be taking some time for the current crisis to register in statistics.
The only three confirmed drug toxicity deaths in Saskatchewan this year happened in Saskatoon, which usually trails Regina in this grim metric by some margin.
Amid this scourge, the Saskatchewan Party government tabled an 88-page budget last week that fails to mention either fentanyl or narcotics, mentions opioids once and (illicit) drugs twice. That clearly demonstrates the priority level for this provincial government of Saskatchewan’s largest city.
But a federal election campaign expected to focus on Trump and trade has also started. Federal candidates in Saskatoon had best prepare informed responses on what has become the city’s most pressing issue.
Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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