Two addictions services groups in Saskatchewan are scrambling to deal with the loss of $100,000 that they had used to run the province’s Gambling Helpline.
Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) used to provide the mobile crisis groups in three cities with funds to run the helpline. So, up until March, when people called the province’s Gambling Helpline, they’d be speaking to someone nearby – either in Saskatoon, Prince Albert or Regina.
But now the hotline’s been centralized to Regina.
So earlier this year, SLGA and the Ministry of Health dealt a blow to Saskatoon and Prince Albert Mobile Crisis.
The two groups were given two weeks’ notice that they’d be losing $100,000 – a major part of their budgets – when the financial year ended after March, said P.A. Mobile Crisis’s executive director Vicki Bird.
“We’ve done some things to try and manage this year. It’s really difficult though with two weeks’ notice to pull together that amount of money,” she said.
Bird said she understands why the government is streamlining, and the province did extend the funding through part of summer to help out.
The helpline will include referrals, and people talking the callers through their issues with gambling. But anyone who’s struggled with addictions knows they have a ripple effect, and that’s no different with problem gambling.
So when people call the province’s Gambling Helpline, it was more than just people wondering if they have a problem. Bird said, oftentimes, the calls to Mobile Crisis require face-to-face communication.
“It can go anywhere from that (talking through gambling issues), to them needing a referral, to mobile needing to respond to, in severe cases, where people are suicide because of gambling,” Bird said.
Prince Albert’s Northern Lights casino is one of the most profitable in the province. So, even though Mobile Crisis isn’t getting the money through SLGA, it’s still dealing with the fallout from problem gambling.
“Will we still respond if the casino calls us and says ‘somebody has left their kids in the car while they’re in the casino,’ would we respond? Absolutely. If the casino called us and said ‘we have someone here that’s distraught because they have just spent their paycheck? We absolutely will. The fact that we don’t get the money to do the gambling line, we won’t stop doing the service, we will always do that. That’s a crisis service,” Bird said.
In Prince Albert’s case, the bulk of their funding comes from the City. So Mobile Crisis has asked for help to bounce back from this funding shortfall.
They won’t find out if the City’s going to grant it until budget deliberations get going, but Prince Albert’s mayor and council says they’re going to petition the province.