Saskatoon bus drivers want city to outfit buses with naloxone kits

The union for Saskatoon public transit workers wants to see drug overdose reversal supplies on city buses, amid a drug poisoning crisis that shows few signs of improvement.

Easily accessible naloxone — a medication that can reverse the effects of some drug overdoses, sometimes referred to by the brand name Narcan — should be on city buses, said Amalgamated Transit Union Local 615 president Darcy Pederson.

"We're definitely seeing an increase in unresponsive passengers riding the buses," Pederson said.

Unresponsive doesn't equate to a toxic drug overdose, but seeing more apparently unconscious or medically distressed passengers does worry transit workers, Pederson said.

It's something bus drivers see daily, said Pederson. Typically, when bus drivers notice an unresponsive passenger, they'll check on the person and then call emergency services.

In 2023, the city denied a union request to outfit buses with naloxone kits, Pederson said.

"We haven't been specifically told that we're not allowed to carry naloxone, but we did present it to transit management … to have it accessible in the buses," Pederson said.

"We were told no, and it was just kind of left at that. So there is no Narcan or naloxone on the buses."

The city doesn't have a policy against putting overdose reversal supplies on buses or in civic buildings, but it is up to individual employees to decide whether or not to carry naloxone kits, said Pamela Goulden-McLeod, the director of the city's emergency management organization.

"That's their choice," said Goulden-McLeod. "Some people would be comfortable with that, some people wouldn't. And so we want to leave that up to our staff members to make that determination."

She said transit employees — like any other city resident — should call 911 if they see a possible drug overdose. 

As for the 2023 request from the transit union, a City of Saskatoon statement said that given "the extremely low incidences of overdose at Transit facilities at the time, management felt it wasn't feasible."

In the past three months, there were three confirmed drug overdoses on Saskatoon Transit properties, Goulden-McLeod said.

21 suspected overdoses on April 1

In the first three months of 2025, the Saskatoon Fire Department responded to 837 calls involving suspected drug overdoses, more the double the 324 calls during that same time last year, said Goulden-McLeod. There were just over 500 in March alone.

On Tuesday, fire crews responded to 21 suspected overdoses in 24 hours, she said.

Like emergency responders and staff from community organizations, Saskatoon Transit workers are feeling the effects of a city in crisis, said Pederson.

"The complexities of our daily job has changed," he said.

"We're dealing with the violence on the buses and we're dealing with fare issues on the buses, and now we're dealing with unresponsive passengers on a daily basis. Our members are getting tired. They're exhausted."