Submitted by Will Arscott 

 

 

It was our last meeting in the familiar surroundings of the William Pascoe Room of the Hotel Bessborough. Our next meeting will be at the Saskatoon Club. There will be more about our upcoming move below. It was time for a bit of nostalgia. The Bessborough has served our club well for a very long time. I am sure that I speak for most members when I say it is with mixed feelings that we leave our old location. Paul Gauthier took pictures of the lectern and the members at the various tables as a record of this last meeting.

 

Greeter was Wayne McGillivray

Cashier was Joanne Fisher

MC was President Vic Dubois

 

The meeting opened with members signing’ O Canada’ and Rotary grace led by Wayne McGillivray who was obviously feeling better and in good form. 

 

Visitors and Guests were not formally introduced. Jason Mecredi - our guest speaker and Josh Reis - a friend of our club were present.

 

                       

 

Our Pending relocation to the Saskatoon Club: March 2^nd (this is one week from our last meeting) will be our first regular meeting at the Saskatoon Club. The Saskatoon Club is offering two meal options. Initially we will alternate the choices until a consensus develops as to our choice of meals. Next week the meal will be soup, sandwich, dessert and coffee for $20. The next meeting will offer a hot meal at $25.

 

There will be a meeting on March 16^th and the Aviation tour on March 30^th. April is uncertain but it is likely we will not meet around the Badge Shield and Star Dinner. We will not meet on Easter Monday. There will be a round table meeting on April 20th.

 

Rotary Storage: Clearing out our storage locker at the Bessborough has been taken on by Paul Gauthier assisted by Donna and Al Morton. Paul says wine helps to accomplish this task. We will have much less storage space at the Saskatoon Club and it is time to pare down. We also need to archive our records at another location.

 

Various items were mentioned specifically:

We have about 30 “Just in Case” binders. We will have to decide how these are to be used.  They could be sold or they could be given to people who make donations to the club or to the Rotary Foundation.

 There are several Prairie Landscape books. These are books of photographs taken of the Prairie Provinces. They are available for sale, price to be determined.

 There is a single large Rotary T-shirt – cost $25.

 Our flags and stand are for sale.

 There is a space heater.

 There are a lot of Rotary pins. These could be made available to members traveling to other clubs.

 There were two projectors but these have been spoken for and will be taken by our international projects.

 

The plan is to have our meetings go as digital as possible. This means we will try to have items such as flags appear on the screen and not store actual flags. These are new times and it would have seemed strange to our members of past generations. There was a time, in the not so distant past, when all the banners we had received from other clubs were on display at our meetings.

 

The club owes much thanks to the hard work of Paul and Al. Maybe the club can replace one of Paul’s empty wine bottles with a full one.

 

Badge Shield and Star Dinner: Joanne Fisher announced that this year’s dinner will be held on April 8. Tickets will be $125.00 each. Our speaker will be Russ Mirasty, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan. Mark your calendar. Tickets are available online through the five club website.   You can also bring money to a meeting.

 

Master’s Gold Pool: Dave Sundby reported that sales will begin just as soon as the license is completed. The cost of a ticket will increase to $30 this year. Dave feels that with a 20% price increase we can achieve the same profit even if we sell 20% fewer tickets and do 20% less work.  [If that were so why don’t we just raise the price by 100%, sell 100% less tickets and do 100% less work? Just wondering.]

 

Grocery cards are available from Donna Gauthier. Bring your credit card and stock up and help Rotary.

 

 

On March 30^th the club is scheduled to have a tour of the Saskatchewan Aviation Museum.  Lunch will be at the museum.

 

The President’s Dinner is scheduled for 25^th of June (Thursday). The meeting will be aboard the Prairie Lily.

 

 

Vic Dubois - put in happy dollars for his trip to Mexico. This was the regular coffee-time trip and Vic reported the weather, the resort and the company were great. Also sad for loss of Peter Zakreski. Vic fondly recalled returning to Rotary after an absence and being asked at his very first meeting to chair the public relations committee. Of course it was Peter who asked.

 

Avis Hardy - put in a happy dollar for Sandy who wanted to thank Peter Whitenct for his friendship and support for Gord and a sad dollar for a flooded basement which is now getting straightened out.

 

Claire Heagy - told some stories about the Bessborough. Claire has been in our club since 1969 and recalled one of the times the hotel let its service to the club decline. At the time the hotel was owned by the Baltzan family. Our long-term member, Bert Ayers called Marc Baltzan in to explain the situation. Marc brought his staff and the situation was immediately resolved to the club’s satisfaction. There have been a lot of changes in ownership during the time our club has used the Bessborough. There were also periods when the grand old hotel was in decline.

 

Maureen Torr - put in a happy dollar for the school in Uganda obtaining a projector. This is just one of many items our club had in storage that is finding a use with a new owner.

 

Mark Gryba - for being back to a meeting after missing several in a row. Unfortunately Mark was forced to travel to the Turks and Caicos for some rest and relaxation and then had to go on a cruise of the Eastern Caribbean.  

 

Wayne McGillivray - like Mark, Wayne put in happy dollars for being back to a meeting after an absence. He reported being on the mend after a period of being under the weather. He reported having an excellent season at the new ski hill. He challenged our members to come and visit the hill. He reports it is a more significant facility than it appears from the freeway. This is an important new facility and the reasonable cost makes it possible for many to enjoy.

 

Dave Sundby - happy for the great Chinese supper the North Club had organized at the Mandarin Restaurant. He represented our club at the dinner and was supported by Gary Kerr and Will Arscott.

 

Mike Giesbrecht for having been mentored by Peter Zakreski.

 

Josh Reis - happy to be back at our club after a difficult time. Over the past while he has had financial difficulties and had to start a new business. His father also passed away. Things have already improved a lot from where they were and he has appreciated the support of Rotary and its members.

 

Tammy Pshebylo- for the progress being made on the Interact project.

 

Throughout our happy and sad announcements were many references to the role Peter Zakreski had played in the club. As a group, we are still very much in mourning after losing this important friend to all of us. The hope was expressed that we will see Elaine at meetings once things settle and her life starts to find a new balance. Our club and everyone involved in the club were enriched through our association with Peter.

           

 

Our guest speaker was introduced by Steve Wilson. Jason Mecredi is the Executive Director of AIDS Saskatoon. As we discovered his job involves far more than AIDS education and support for the HIV positive. Jason has won many awards and is the co-founder of the national HIV Testing Day. He has also won awards for strategies related to harm reduction. Recently he was involved in establishing a safe consumption site facility in Saskatoon.

 

Jason began by explaining that AIDS Saskatoon has completed a move from the Mayfair area down to Riversdale. This move was to facilitate the establishment of a safe injection and smoking site to serve those in our city who suffer from drug addiction. Currently intravenous drug use is the major source for the spread of the HIV virus and a huge majority of new cases come from this community. Riversdale, from the Friendship Inn and west, is the area that has by far the highest rate of drug use in Saskatoon. The address of their new facility is 1516 20^th St. W which used to be the old Pleasant Hill Bakery. It is located between the Saskatoon Community Clinic and the Tribal Council. It is also close to St. Paul’s Hospital. An emergency detox center is about to open at the St. Paul’s Hospital.

 

Stakeholders were consulted and there was overwhelming support from individuals and businesses in the area. The opening of the site has immediately reduced crime in the area. Jason reports that they have yet to have a violent incident take place in conjunction with the clinic.

 

From the beginning the plan was to have much more than just a safe injection facility site. He refers to the drug use part as the ‘front’ of the building, to Jason the back part of the building is even more important and features a drop- in center and referral center for the support that is needed to help the clientele. The building is designed as a ‘chute’ where the clients have to pass through the support area to get to the usage area. In other cities the safe sites are strictly use sites and people come in, use, and are back out on the street. The site in Saskatoon features a large television, lounge and other things such as telephone and internet to encourage clients to hang at the center. The staff is highly trained in dealing with difficult people and situations. Jason spoke about the training and strategies that must be learned in order to deal with individuals that are in a drug-induced psychosis. To date they have been successful and as stated above there have been no violent incidents.

 

No one is in favor of drug addiction. However, we have considerable drug addiction in our city and the question becomes how best to deal with it. Jason describes the model we have worked with for so long as the ‘cops and gangs model’. In this model the object is to get rid of drugs by police action. This has not worked. On occasion the police are able to break up a gang. When they do it is inevitable that another gang moves in and it is even more ruthless. Recently there have been several shootings in the news centering on the Mayfair district. The gang that was in that area was damaged and a new gang moved in leading to an increase in violence.

 

Another approach is favored by Jason. In this approach steps are taken to limit harm and support is provided to lift the person out of their current lifestyle. Nobody should want to leave people with drug addiction out on our streets. These are our fellow citizens and empathy and compassion are traits that make us all better human beings.

 

The safe site provides services for about 950 people. One of their goals is to get people off injecting drugs onto smoking drugs as these are easier to kick. That is why the smoking room is such an important aspect of the overall facility. Many addicts have trouble injecting themselves effectively. In some cases this gives men power over women and helps to direct them into the sex trade. The other issue is that intravenous use leads to two types of infections: the first is an abscess which, if untreated, can lead to amputation. The second type of infection is an internal infection which can require extended hospitalization and a regime of very expensive and powerful antibiotics. Either of these results are expensive for taxpayers. The site allows addicts to be monitored and an earlier intervention to occur. Providing drug pipes is also a good investment as the availability of free needles encourages intravenous use.

 

The site is staffed by paramedics trained to deal with the clientele. These people have the best skill set. It might be good to use nurses but they are simply too expensive to hire.

 

One of the main goals of the facility is to save money. The facility has a value of about one million dollars but the money came from existing budgets and no new money was used. By supporting their clients the number of incidents involving police, ambulance and fire can be reduced. Another saving can be made by making the anti-overdose drub Nalozine available at a much subsidized cost so that it is available when needed. The cost of a Nalozine kit is about $125 which puts it out of the range of most drug users. In the end providing kits at a subsidized cost is much less expensive than using police or paramedics. Most overdose calls end up being handled by the police which is very expensive. From the very beginning The Saskatoon Police Service has acted as a partner in the development of this facility. Their support is greatly appreciated.

 

The facility also works with about 1,200 families. They undertake many extractions due to family violence. Of these families about 350 families are on an intensive basis. When a family is on intense supervision there is contact with the center at least twice per week. In many cases without this level of contact children would be removed by social services. The facility has a good relationship with social services and social services shares information on the families the center serves. The staff at the center have also become very good at getting things done quickly due to their workload.

 

The ultimate treatment for addicts is to get them reconnected into society. The world of an addict is very small. As their connection improves it is a job that takes them to the next level. Jason reports there is no recovery tool as effective as being employed. The Center helped convince the provincial government to allow people to earn an increased amount of $500 per month without reducing their social assistance. This is very important to individuals in early recovery. The center also operates a fine option program that functions in part as a pre-employment program.  An example is the Wednesday trash pick-up in the neighbourhood around the Center. This involves the staff as well as the clients. Reducing financial pressure improves the prognosis in recovery.

 

Another way to keep people away from drugs is simply to give them something to do particularly in the evenings. To this end there is an art initiative as well as the television lounge for less formal hanging out. Jason hopes to do more in this area going forward.

 

Jason talked continually about the Center providing good value for the money spent and saving money that would have to be spent otherwise. Currently the Center is waiting on the 1.3 million grant from the Provincial government. It should be in place March 18^th.

 

This is important work. It saves lives. Up to the beginning of 2019 the Centre had 145 deaths among its clients. Without the Center the toll would be higher. The goal is to dramatically reduce the number of drug deaths in Saskatoon.

 

There were several questions: One was about the full legalization of drugs in Portugal. Jason says Portugal is a good model and that legalization has not taken place in Portugal. Portugal has decriminalized drugs and do not use the regular court sanctions against addicts. However, Portugal views addiction as a health issue and requires that addicts enter long-term treatment.   This is a great system and works but it is initially expensive. In the end it results in many more healthy contributing people.

 

There are many other initiatives. Syphilis is also a problem in the population served. Condoms with Indigenous language instructions are being introduced to help in this area. Equally important is having staff trained to give instructions in very simple terms. It is difficult to get people to comply with instructions they do not understand.  

 

[It was a great presentation and Jason is obviously very dedicated to his work. He provided so much information that the summary above is just part of his presentation. We are lucky to have Jason and his people caring for the addicted in our city.]

 

Jason was thanked by our President Vic and the regular donation will be made to Bethany Homes on his behalf.