Murray Wood: Maybe we're amazed
Some think Paul McCartney's voice sounded old and broken on Saturday Night Live. But Murray Wood says others found it be...
The chief operating officer of the Saskatoon Community Clinic is imploring city councillors to lobby harder for more help from the provincial and federal governments, as nurses at his facility continue to treat a relentless number of overdoses, and the demand for help at local organizations escalates.
“I implore you to have a voice around solving the emergency crisis,” said Toby Esterby, COO of the Saskatoon Community Clinic.
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“It’s National Nurses Week. My nurses’ wish list was better knee pads. They needed better knee pads because the knee pads we had for them doing CPR on an overdose response, they weren’t fitting the bill,” he explained.
“My primary care nurses want knee pads. That’s not right.”
Speaking at the Saskatoon City Council’s May 13 Governance and Priorities Committee meeting, Esterby echoed the calls two weeks ago from Jay Protz, IAFF Local 80 union president, for “an ear” from all levels of government, and more resources to help first responders cope with increasing demands as well.
“Your city-funded teams have been a lifeline for the individuals they have been reviving on the streets … and they have been a lifeline for the agencies who have been scrambling to try and fill the gaps that are in community,” Esterby told councillors.
According to Saskatoon Fire Department statistics, crews responded to 680 calls for overdoses in April 2026, surpassing the previous record of 509 in March 2025.
Citing Point in Time homeless count numbers gathered in October 2025, Esterby said he warned at least two years ago — when the homeless count was around 500 in Saskatoon — that the numbers would only go up. They are now nearly four times that number, at 1,931.
He said many of those experiencing homelessness are suffering with substance abuse and mental health disorders, and he called for action.
“These crises all need immediate response. They need immediate resources. Some — though not many — of those resources are levers that you can pull as a municipality,” he said, adding that other levers belonged to the provincial and federal governments, while others simply didn’t exist yet.
Esterby told councillors the sheer volume of people living homeless in the community and the growing numbers of people who need to access local programs, health care, and other resources, is overwhelming.
“The systems that we have in place are breaking.”
Calling it a “Band-Aid” solution for now, Esterby said keeping people alive is the “absolute” priority, however continuing with emergency responses was not sustainable.
He called for a continued voice of advocacy to both the provincial and federal governments rooted in “ground-level experience.” Esterby said his organization would also continue to partner with the Saskatoon fire and police departments, calling them “admirable.”
Pamela Goulden-McLeod, Saskatoon’s director of emergency management, also presented the city’s community safety program plan at the same meeting, highlighting the efforts of police, fire, private security, and community organizations at key locations.
Those include the Avenue C drop-in centre, the Pacific Avenue Mustard Seed temporary homeless shelter, the Pleasant Hill and Riversdale encampment response area, and a pilot project going on at the 3rd Avenue and 23rd Street intersection that can adapt responses in real time based on “emerging” conditions.
Goulden-McLeod said the plan and model is functioning as intended but the volume and intensity of activity being managed has significantly increased in 2026.
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