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A couple of big issues will be covered during Saskatoon City Council’s meeting on Wednesday.
One of those is whether or not the city will opt into the Safe Public Spaces Act, a piece of provincial legislation that came into effect on Aug. 1. Communities that adopt the act can classify various items as “street weapons,” including large knives, bear spray, fentanyl, methamphetamine and needles not used for medical purposes.
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Kayla DeMong, executive director of Prairie Harm Reduction, said opting into the legislation won’t do anything to improve safety in Saskatoon.
By including drugs and needles, DeMong said the act criminalizes vulnerable people who are struggling with addictions. She noted that more than 90 per cent of those using her organization’s supervised consumption site are Indigenous.
“This just creates further fear mongering and isolation of people that use substances, because the public is going to look at this and say ‘Everybody that does drugs is now a public safety risk,’” she said.
But, DeMong noted, her concerns don’t apply to every item included on the list.
“It’s a lot different if somebody has a machete, if somebody has a gun, if somebody has a knife, to identify that those are dangerous to the public,” she said.
“I really don’t think that there’s anything wrong with the police stepping in when somebody’s being assaulted and there’s a weapon involved.”
If police arrest someone and find large amounts of drugs on them, DeMong said the officers “already have the legislation to deal with that.”
The Saskatoon Police Service took the opposite stance, with Dale Solie, the city’s acting chief of police, writing a letter encouraging councillors to opt in to the provincial act.
Solie pointed out that the number of bear spray attacks in the city continues to increase, with 301 incidents already documented in Saskatoon between January and July.
That surpasses the number of incidents recorded between 2021 and 2023, and while it’s still less than the 367 attacks reported in 2024, Solie said the city is on track to set a new record in 2025.
Opting into the legislation, in addition to the recent changes made to the city’s business license bylaw regarding the sale of bear spray, will give officers greater ability to “remove dangerous weapons from public areas before they are used in violent incidents,” according to Solie.
He also wrote about a “large number of incidents involving knives,” saying the city saw 250 incidents between January and July.
Solie did not mention the benefits of classifying drugs and needles as “street weapons” in his letter, but DeMong said that including those items within the broader list of weapons could end up disproportionately targeting homeless people who already interact with officers frequently, potentially damaging the “great relationship” Prairie Harm Reduction has built with the Saskatoon Police Service.
While the legislation explains that police have to be aware someone has a street weapon prior to stopping them, DeMong said it’s difficult to standardize that process when it comes to carrying drugs and needles.
DeMong said 20 of Prairie Harm Reduction’s clients have died in 2025, and the deaths occurred while the organization’s supervised consumption site was closed.
According to the Saskatchewan Coroners Service, between January to the end of July, 210 people in Saskatchewan died from suspected or confirmed overdoses, and 46 of those deaths happened in Saskatoon.
DeMong maintained that the best way to address the drug crisis in Saskatoon is through increasing investments into health care, education and social systems, not by increasing criminalization.
In its report on community electric vehicle charging stations, the city noted that free charging has raised concerns about fairness, with EV drivers viewed as “more financially stable and not in need of subsidized services.” (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)
Fairness concerns over electric vehicle charging
Another point of discussion at this week’s city council meeting is how much the city should charge drivers for using the community’s electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.
The stations are currently free to use, but the cost could be set as high as $5.35 per hour.
Saskatoon launched its Community Electric Vehicle Charging Station pilot back in May of 2023 at the Lawson and Lakewood civic centers. The project was a two-year pilot that operated with no user fees for charging, in an effort to reduce barriers and encourage residents to purchase and drive EVs.
While the pilot was received positively and saw consistent growth in usage, non-EV users complained to the city about using public funds for the project. Based on the city’s reporting, the pilot cost roughly $20,400 per year to run.
The pilot project wrapped up earlier this year, though it still costs users nothing to get charged up at the public stations. But that’s likely going to change, and it will be up to council to decide how much to charge users.
The hourly rate could be set at $2, $3, or even as high as $5.35 to charge an EV at a public sation. The $5.35 option would fully cover the city’s costs associated with the charging stations.
Council could also decide to keep the stations free or discontinue the charging stations altogether.
The recommendation provided to city council was to adopt the $3/hour rate, but even that would make Saskatoon’s charging stations more expensive than those in several other Canadian cities.
Winnipeg’s civic sites charge users $1.50 per hour for active charging. Calgary’s city-owned chargers are free, Toronto’s cost $2 per hour during the day, and Vancouver’s charging stations cost users roughly $1.80 per hour.
According to SaskPower, the average cost to charge an EV ranges from $1 to $2.50 per hour.
The costs would only apply to charging stations provided by the city and wouldn’t impact chargers provided by private companies.
