A big highlight of this year’s Speech from the Throne was the proposal of involuntary treatment for those suffering from addictions. 

This is a bold statement at a time when people actively seeking help for addiction and mental health treatment face long waiting lists, hospitals are underfunded and understaffed, towns and cities are struggling to provide warming centers for the unhoused, and demand is overshadowing support for food banks.

Just a reminder, we already know what real, long-lasting solutions look like. When we fund drug treatment programs, healthcare, mental health services, social workers, affordable housing, education, job placement, and the decriminalization & regulation of sex work and drugs, then we actually have the public infrastructure for success.

The other truly nonsensical thing about the involuntary treatment announcement is that people who desperately need treatment can’t even get in because there’s no room.

How is the SaskParty planning to force people to go to treatment when there isn’t even space for those who are currently trying to go willingly?

Where do the people who voluntarily seek treatment go? Is the SaskParty planning for them to be in the same place as those forced into treatment? I hope they are at least planning to build facilities for forced treatment that would be separate. If the plan is to force people into treatment, then please give more details as to where.

We want affordable housing. Not more temporary shelters.

The core issue is a lack of resources/support for places where people can go and have shelter, even for the mere stability to start breaking out of addiction. People locked in the cycle of addiction need stable housing as their top priority. Sending someone to involuntary treatment and then returning them to the streets just keeps the cycle going. This isn’t solving the problem.

Involuntary treatment does not equal compassion. Taking away an individual’s right to choose does not promote long-term recovery. Autonomy is a central ethical principle of working in healthcare, mental health & addictions and in any other human service field.
A truly caring and compassionate approach includes evidence-based harm reduction strategies, voluntary treatment and acknowledging the causes of addiction rooted in poverty, mental health issues and trauma.

It appears that Scott Moe plans to incarcerate those suffering from drug addiction for a while, for appearances, to get them off the street. The fact is that most of these cases end up in our emergency rooms, which are already overcrowded and understaffed.

The SaskParty needs to give more support to our health system and hospitals so we have the ability to provide care there to those in crisis. The idea of involuntary treatment is just taking a bed from people already waiting for voluntary drug treatment services – those individuals seeking voluntary treatment already have long wait lists to suffer through!

Why wouldn’t Scott Moe have made dealing with homelessness and creating a real Housing First solution in Saskatchewan the highlight of this year’s throne speech?!

Actual compassion and solutions for the homeless as winter sets in? Instead, we are thrown another wildcard non-solution. Pathetic.

Naomi Hunter,
Saskatchewan Green Party Leader