Saskatchewan's Advocate for Children and Youth is raising alarms about the devastating impact of the toxic drug crisis on children's safety, calling for improved case management to better serve the province's youngest population.
Annual Report Reveals Troubling Findings
The concerns were outlined in the advocate's 2025 annual report, which identified issues with case management and case planning as the most common complaints reported to the office. The report also included an investigation into 13 children under five who had illicit drugs in their system at the time of death, as well as others hospitalized due to exposure.
Dr. Lisa Broda, who has served as the children's advocate since 2019, noted that more than 40 children fell into this category between 2019 and 2025. 'To be clear, these children are not intentionally ingesting these toxic drugs. Rather, they're experiencing this harm simply because others are using these substances around them,' she said.
Focus on Vulnerable Young Children
Broda emphasized that the focus on children under five was due to their dependence on adults and inability to protect themselves. 'They have increased contact with contaminated household surfaces through crawling and putting things in their mouths,' she explained. The report broke down deaths and hospital visits by exposure to fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine, and also noted risks from prescribed benzodiazepines.
'Usually, we do a special report on these things, but because of the seriousness, the lethality of this, we want to say it now,' Broda said at a news conference in Saskatoon before the report was tabled in the Saskatchewan legislature.
Case Management Issues Linked to Staffing Shortages
The report explicitly linked case management problems in child-serving organizations, school divisions, and health entities to staffing shortages. 'We again noted a significant increase in callers reporting they had been unable to contact their assigned worker or requesting our assistance to obtain a new worker,' it reads. Broda acknowledged that most frontline staff are doing what they can with limited resources, but added, 'The system is not producing the best possible outcomes for children.'
When asked about the ripple effect of the recent closure of Saskatoon's Prairie Harm Reduction, Broda said the matter was outside her mandate.
