Posted: Feb 01, 2021 11:51 AM CT | Last Updated: February 1
Jason Mercredi poses in the Prairie Harm Reduction safe consumption area, which opened last fall. Due to COVID restrictions, the organization can only allow nine people inside at a time, despite the recent cold.(Chelsea Laskowski/CBC)
When Saskatoon weather hit lows of –34 C last week, Jason Mercredi says, people were begging staff at Prairie Harm Reduction to let them in to warm up. They ve been negotiating with other participants saying, hey, can you come outside for five minutes and let me warm up? said Mercredi, executive director of the organization. We ve definitely had people crying, begging, yelling. You know, it s not right that we can t let them in at that point, but we also don t want to break COVID protocols.