The Saskatchewan government has committed to creating 72 new addiction treatment beds across the province as part of its increased addiction funding in this year’s budget.

In the 2019-2020 budget released on Wednesday, the province outlined its plan to invest more than $52 million in combatting addictions.

“We have heard a lot through the last couple of years of the need for more services for mental health and addiction, so we definitely made that a priority area,” Minister of Finance Donna Harpauer told reporters.

A large part of that plan is creating more space for patients through an estimated 50 new pre- and post-addiction treatment beds for people transitioning from detox centres to in-patient treatment or back into the community.

“We need to do better. We have high rates of addiction. We have a crystal meth problem in this province and there’s very clearly a demand for addictions beds so that’s why you saw a very significant increase of funding there,” said Minister of Health Jim Reiter.

Pine Lodge, a community-based and government-funded organization in Indian head, is also receiving 10 new in-patient addiction treatment beds. With only 23 beds currently in the facility, a boost of 10 more is a big jump for the organization.

“It’s going to reduce our waitlist, (which) sits probably between 30 and 45 days to practically zero so that’s good news,” said Pine Lodge executive director Foster Monson.

“With 10 extra beds, we’re going to be at full capacity with no room for any more, unless we were to put money into capital costs.”

Pine Lodge, which helps people struggling with addiction readjust to community life, put in a request for more capacity with the Ministry of Health back in the fall, though Monson said he did not know what that capacity would look like until the budget dropped.

Monson is satisfied with the new beds and said the organization will be looking to hire an estimated six or seven new staff members to accommodate the capacity increase.

“It’s a big deal for the addictions community,” said Monson. “The government I think realizes that mental health and addictions is going to get to be a greater problem all the time and they need to deal with it, and I think they are doing that.”

The budget also includes $1.6 million for the creation of three Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine (RAAM) clinics in Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

These clinics would provide immediate help for people trying to overcome addiction. Although the RAAM clinics came as a surprise to the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the organization’s CEO Scott Livingstone is pleased to see them in the budget.

“They will give people rapid access to methadone or alternative forms of treatment for addictive services in a rapid way, so that when people make the decision that they want to get off the rollercoaster and get back into treatment, we have a rapid way of actually doing that,” he said.

“The teams themselves are not standalone though … it’s how we connect those RAAM teams to the rest of the system.”

Livingstone is content with the funding announced in this year’s budget, but he acknowledged that the government’s support for addiction treatment cannot stop there.

“As we go down the path of trying to address this complex medical problem, there will be more investment required across the province,” he said.

Reiter said the government recognizes the ongoing need for addictions funding, and that more will be coming.

“We’ve made it very clear for some time now that mental health and addictions is going to be a focal point for this budget and future budgets,” he said.

Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili said the announced addictions funding is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough to address the province’s long treatment wait times.

“People are presenting still so often in Saskatchewan saying, ‘I’m ready to get help’ and we tell them, ‘Great, come back in three months. Come back in six months.’ And you might as well tell them never,” he said.

“It doesn’t get us anywhere near what needs to be done, either on the prevention side or the treatment side, but it’s a step forward.”

Also included in the $8.39 million specifically earmarked for treatment beds are around 75 new residential support beds for people with intensive mental health needs working on transitioning back into the community, six in-patient addiction treatment beds in Saskatoon’s Calder Centre, and six in-patient addiction beds for youth to open in southern Saskatchewan in the next year.