REGINA — The Sask Party government has been under pressure this week to release numbers for those on waitlists for addictions treatment in the province.
In Question Period this week, NDP critics have been grilling Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Lori Carr over the issue, demanding answers on how many people are in line waiting for treatment. On Tuesday, Saskatoon Centre MLA Betty Nippi-Albright demanded to know “how long are people waiting today to get into addiction treatment centres in our province?”
Instead of providing those numbers, Carr pointed to the mental health and addictions action plan currently in place and the number of spaces they were committed to providing.
“We are adding an additional 500 spaces to the province of Saskatchewan,” said Carr in the Assembly, as recorded in Hansard. “So that’s on top of what we already have. We have just about 300 of those spaces in place right now, Mr. Speaker, with the goal of getting to those 500 as soon as we can. Once that goal is reached — and it will be reached, Mr. Speaker — then we will evaluate what is out there, and what other types of spaces need to be open.”
That answer did not satisfy Nippi-Albright.
“Mr. Speaker, these have been basic questions, and the Minister continues to not answer the question. She should know how many people are waiting for treatment space, and she should know how long people are waiting for care.”
It was more of the same Wednesday in Question Period, as Athabasca MLA Leroy Laliberte accused Carr of ducking the question.
“Mr. Speaker, the Minister is committed to opening spaces, but she is not committed to answering any questions in this Assembly. For two weeks we have been asking this question, and for two weeks she has dodged this question. People are dying every day in this province, Mr. Speaker, especially in the North. This is urgent and this is a crisis.”
Carr responded that “wait-lists and times across the province vary depending on the situations. But as we talk about mental health and addictions, it’s about recovery. And recovery is a journey not a destination, Mr. Speaker.”
“Mr. Speaker, the journey is actually waiting for the answer, is what’s going on here,” Laliberte responded.
In speaking to the media scrum Wednesday, Carr was under pressure from reporters to reveal actual numbers of those waiting for treatment, but had no hard numbers to share.
“Waitlists fluctuate depending on the situation, depending on the area, depending on what type of service they are trying to get into,” said Carr.
When asked if they could have done a point in time count, Carr said an individual that calls around to several facilities “may put their name on more than one wait list.”
“How do you measure that? So it’s so subjective in any given point in time, but the whole point being is to get more spaces open so people aren’t waiting, and that’s what we’re working towards.”
Carr added that what the province was working towards was a central intake system.
“We don’t have that at this point in time, but we are working towards that and have that open soon for all treatment facilities to be able to feed into.”
As they continue to open up spaces, Carr said, by the time the full 500 spaces are in place the “central intake system will hopefully be up and running,” and then they will “have a real idea of what we need for services moving forward whether that’s more inpatient (or) outpatient services, virtual care, whatever that might look like, And so that will give us a really good point in time here."
Carr also said once the 500 spaces are filled, she and Premier Scott Moe will re-evaluate and if more spaces are needed, they will be opened.
