Regina's supervised consumption site reopens after fire

There's still a slightly smoky scent when you walk into the Nēwo-Yōtina Friendship Centre, on 11th Avenue near Broad Street in Regina, but the doors are open again. 

The supervised consumption site was closed for more than two months after a neighbouring restaurant caught fire in late March, causing extensive smoke damage to the upstairs part of the centre's building.

Now, after renovations, the harm reduction site is larger and has more tables for users, staff say.

"It's going to run better now," said Emile Gariepy, the centre's harm reduction manager.

Gariepy gestured to where a wall was removed, allowing staff to change the centre's layout and have "more eyes" on clients.  He said the change frees up the centre's paramedic, who previously had to stay with users when the safe injection area was in a more secluded spot.

The centre's closure had a "major impact," as many returned to injecting in back alleys, bathrooms and harder-to-discover areas, Gariepy said.

"It gets dangerous, because when you overdose when you're trying to hide from the public, nobody's going to find you," he said.

Gariepy said he would speak to people injecting on the street during the centre's closure and they would tell him, "the safe injection site is not open anymore, so we need to find a place to go." 

The Saskatchewan Health Authority issued an overdose alert for Regina last week, after city police responded to 54 suspected overdoses from June 5 to 12 — with 12 calls happening on a single day.     

Gariepy said Regina is facing an influx of toxic drugs, making the centre's role crucial. 

"With the safe injection site being open, if they run into those toxic drugs here, they overdose in real time. We watch it happen right in front of ourselves and we get to bring them back right away," he said, adding that often an ambulance is not even needed.

That fast response time helps recovery and cuts down on the impact on the health-care system, he said.  

According to the Saskatchewan Coroners Service, 148 people have died in the province this year from suspected or confirmed drug overdoses, as of June 1.  

Free drug testing is also available at the centre, which received a permanent legal exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, allowing people to use drugs within the building, in December 2024.  

The centre and Prairie Harm Reduction in Saskatoon are the only facilities with the federal exemption in Saskatchewan.

Gariepy stressed that the centre never gives illicit drugs to users.

"They already have them. We are providing life-saving drugs, like naloxone."  

No more cultural programming 

Before the fire, the Nēwo-Yōtina Friendship Centre also ran cultural programming in the upstairs part of the building, but that remains closed because of smoke damage. 

"This building is just going to be harm reduction," Gariepy said, adding staff will try to offer cultural programming as much as they can, but there are going to be fewer of them in the building now. 

There will be a housing diversion worker who can help connect people to housing, he said. 

The centre's popular free food program has also resumed. The centre serves 50 to 60 porridges and coffee until 10 a.m. and then "an in-between lunch and supper meal" at 3:30 p.m. 

"We wanted to make sure people have full bellies," Gariepy said, because there are not "many places in this neighbourhood to get supper." On a busy day, they can give out 50 meals in five minutes, he said. 

'Funding would be great'

Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health does not fund supervised consumption sites. Gariepy said the centre gets some money from the city, some donations and, "here and there, a couple of grants." 

"We scrape by and try and do the best we can," he said. "Funding would be great."

Gariepy said more money would allow the centre to they would increase its hours. Currently Nēwo-Yōtina operates from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. CST. In an ideal world, it would be open 24/7, he said.

"We have had regular clients who died because of the hours," he said.