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The Sask. Party Government’s Compassionate Intervention Act passed third reading this week, and the minister in charge offered a few more details about what the program will look like.
Once the bill is signed into law in the coming week, Mental Health and Addictions Minister Lori Carr said there will be more logistics to work out – putting the regulations in place, developing the board and instituting the committees that will oversee the assessment and intake process.
She hoped the program would be up and running later this year.
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The assessment centre is already in place in North Battleford, and Carr said patients who are referred for intervention will be in beds at the Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford, which is a secure psychiatric hospital, with Saskatchewan Health Authority workers throughout.
She said there are no addictions treatment spaces at the hospital right now, so this program will not be taking away any spaces from the voluntary treatment ecosystem.
“This is a completely different stream, we have a different funding bucket for compassionate intervention (than) we do for our voluntary spaces. They’re complete and separate so there’s no chance of us taking away any voluntary spaces for compassionate intervention,” said Carr.
She said this is what the plan is right now.
“Of course, we want to see how compassionate intervention rolls out, what does it look like, is it working, do adjustments need to be made?” she explained.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Lori Carr says people who are committed to involuntary treatment will be treated at the Sask. Hospital North Battleford. May 5, 2026 (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)
The NDP brought forward 17 different amendments to the legislation when it was in committee earlier this week, but none were accepted by government members.
Among their concerns were people’s rights and making sure this is truly a last resort.
Carr insisted there are safeguards in place, saying people are offered legal representation when they’re taken to the assessment centre and throughout the process.
She said this is not jail, it’s a different set of circumstances to get people the help they need.
The NDP also brought forward concerns about Indigenous representation on the boards and assessment panels, but Carr says the legislation has included that there will be Indigenous representation.
Betty Nippi-Albright, in her opposition to the bill, outlined concerns that the legislation only required one Indigenous representative and concerns about meaningful consideration of Indigenous rights.
Carr said the assessments are based on the individual person and would be different from patient to patient, and so could the time they end up spending in treatment, explaining there is no limit to how long.
“It could be three months, it could be a year. It will be evaluated at any given point in time to see what the next step is for that individual, and it will all be different,” the minister said.
She also said there is no budget amount for the program at the moment, despite her hopes it will be up and running before the end of the fiscal year.
Opposition amendments
NDP Leader Carla Beck appeared frustrated on Tuesday after the bill passed.
She and the rest of the NDP voted against it. Beck said they had tried to move their amendments to strengthen the bill in committee.
“We saw the government not even consider those amendments and vote them down right away,” said Beck.
She said the party appreciates that in some extreme cases, when a person is a danger to themselves and others, involuntary treatment has a place.
“However, that needs to be with the proper supports and protections in place, and it also has to be a last resort,” said Beck, who maintained the amendments her party had pushed for would have strengthened the bill.
She also accused the provincial government of not doing enough around drug prevention and voluntary treatment.
“This government, time and time again, watches these social tragedies spiral out of control and then reaches for, in this case, a rather untested option,” said the NDP leader.
Beck said the NDP will continue to work on the issue in the legislature.
