The daughter of former Camp Marjorie’s namesake wants more drug and addition strategies in the province.
Vivian Friday, who commonly went by Marjorie, died from an overdose in Regina’s Victoria Park in October while at a rally about homelessness.
A homeless camp was then named Camp Marjorie, before changing the name to Camp Hope.
“She was struggling since she was a girl with addictions,” Vivian’s daughter, Viola Friday said.
Friday said she watched her mom and other family members struggle with addiction her whole life, before she started to occasionally use drugs herself.
She added the camp brought light to a big issue in Saskatchewan and her mom would have been “happy to have this happen.”
Friday is looking for more supports from the province so tragedies like this don’t happen again.
“They have to get the drugs off the streets because too many people are dying of that,” Friday said.
The Regina Police Service reported 160 apparent overdose deaths in 2021, at a 40 per cent spike from 2020.
At the Saskatchewan Legislature during Question Period on Wednesday, Everett Hindley, minister of mental health and addictions, said the province is trying to provide as much support to as many programs as it can across the province.
He added the province has made strides with mental health and addiction investments in recent years.
“Specifically on harm reduction alone, I think the numbers in (the 2021) budget are roughly $2.6 million, more than six times what was invested in harm reduction dating back to 2007,” Hindley said. “We’ve continued to make investments into these areas.”
In 2021 the province gave funding to Prairie Harm Reduction and the Saskatoon Tribal Council.
Hindley said there is also a special drug force reporting drug use across the province.
It also suggests strategies to increase harm reduction and reduce the amount of drugs there are on the streets.
“We’re trying to target certain geographic areas where there might be a challenge,” he said. “There will be some decisions made in the (2022) budget in terms of next steps going forward.”
Hindley said the strategies will not just involve the provincial government, but will have to be a collaborative effort between the federal government, municipalities and community organizations.
The provincial budget is set to be released on March 23.