The head of Residents in Recovery is weighing in on the Saskatchewan government spending of over $1.5 million on the treatment facility in Lumsden for some nine months even though patients were not accepted until Jan. 21, 2025.
Executive Director at Residents in Recovery, Tyler Lorenz is baffled that the government is still taking advice from a private supplier while community groups that are on the front line of recovery efforts are doing work with little resources.
“Governments need to take a step back and have a look at what frontline organizations such as Residents in Recovery are doing. We were the first in the country to provide true barrier-free pre-treatment Sober Living.”
The Saskatchewan NDP through a freedom of information request obtained the government documents after whistleblowers began to speak up on the matter.
The former senior admissions coordinator, Mandy Challis says as of October last year, the 60-bed Willowview Treatment Centre had not accepted any clients for treatment. The facility which was announced in Jan. 2024, was supposed to open last spring.
At the end of November, Minister of Addictions and Mental Health Lori Carr described the delays as unfortunate but said the beds would open soon.
EHN Canada who is running the facility opened 30 out-patient spaces to respond to the challenge. Challis said when she left, the waitlist was about 200.
In January when the government opened the facility for 20 new in-patient spaces Carr said, “The Government of Saskatchewan is focused on helping residents who want treatment for substance use access the supports they need to start their path to recovery.”
Challis said from the waiting list she knows four people who have died while waiting on the all round treatment promised by the centre.
“This facility has had a year of money put into it with no clients when there are local organizations begging for donations,” said Challis.
Meanwhile, Lorenz says at Residents in Recovery, “We are providing evidence-based programs that fill the gaps in the continuum of care. We are doing it effectively and at much lower cost than the government or the for-profit companies that our governments are aligning themselves with. They clearly have a different agenda other than saving lives.”
Referring to the over 200 overdoses in Saskatoon in the last two weeks, mental health and addictions critic with the NDP, Betty Nippi-Albright questions exactly where the money is going.
“The government also redacted the total cost of the project, so the full cost of the facility remains an open question. Drugs are taking lives every single day while wait times grow and this addictions crisis gets worse.”
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