The NDP Shadow Minister for Mental Health & Addictions says library workers shouldn’t have to be dealing with overdoses and drug poisonings, intervening in drug sales inside and outside the library, and abuse by those under the influence of substances. Two Saskatoon libraries closed last week for a month because of the concerns for staff safety at the Frances Morrison Library downtown and Dr. Freda Ahenakew Library on 20th Street West. Betty Nippi-Albright says it’s not up to library workers to fill the rolls of treatment and care for those in need. She suggests that instead of funding the Saskatchewan Marshals Service, that money could instead go to the community organizations who are the experts in treatment and addiction, and to emergency services, like police and fire.

Nippi-Albright also points out that the money announced in the provincial budget for 500 treatment beds is actually not new. It was originally announced in 2023. The Shadow Minister and library workers who are members of CUPE Local 2669 met with reporters outside of the downtown library today (Mon) and CUPE representative Cara Stelmaschuk painted the picture of what workers deal with daily. She says, “There are violent incidents where people are brazenly coming in to the building holding a shovel, a hammer, a knife, a hockey stick and you know it’s a weapon. There is no reason to have that in the library. How do you get that person to leave?” While library workers are doing their jobs, Stelmaschuk says, they are also on the lookout for violent incidences, people who are in distress, people who are having mental health crises and often they are putting themselves in harm’s way. Stelmaschuk adds that library workers aren’t the experts in mental health and addictions so the government needs to talk to the community organizations and trained experts who are already helping those in need and fund them adequately.

Homeless advocate, David Fineday, is also calling for immediate funding, but not for doing studies, and instead for concrete action. With the two libraries and Prairie Harm Reduction temporarily closed, Fineday wonders what happens to those on the street. “Where are they going to go? All these places are closed. Are they going to go to the mall now? To Sturdy Stone? Where are they going to go?” Fineday says he doesn’t want people to call down First Nations people, stating that these issues stem from colonialization.