Sask. city’s wastewater tops Canada for most methamphetamine, cocaine

A small Saskatchewan city is making a name for itself, but not the one it wants to be known by.

Prince Albert had the highest recorded levels of methamphetamine and cocaine in its wastewater between January 2024 and March 2026, according to data from Statistics Canada.

The concentration of traces of methamphetamine in wastewater across the city decreased from July to November 2025, before peaking at just over 2,000 milligrams per day per 1,000 people in March.

Prince Albert is one of only two cities with a concentration more than 1,000 milligrams per day per 1,000 people. The other city was Moncton, N.B., recorded in January.

Saskatoon has the third highest concentration of methamphetamine in its wastewater with 957 milligrams per day per 1,000 people in March.

While Metro Vancouver has levels of norfentanyl more than four times all other reporting cities combined, Prince Albert saw the biggest increase in norfentanyl in its wastewater between January and March.

“While fentanyl remains central to Canada’s overdose crisis, being involved in more than half (56%) of opioid-related deaths in 2025, stimulant use is also a significant source of substance-related harms nationally,” Statistics Canada said in its update.

One public health expert at the University of Saskatchewan said wastewater data provides a population overview, but it can also provide a vantage point for police forces and community organizations as its data transcends the level of drug use that may be individually reported.

“I think this helps combat stigma a little bit where we’re not just envisioning a certain segment of the population that’s using substances, but we can get a sense of the overall population level,” Barbara Fornssler told Global News.

This is not the first time Prince Albert has taken the crown for the meth capital of Canada. It also had the highest concentration of methamphetamine in the 2024 wastewater survey, though Statistics Canada noted that survey was conducted using a different method and the results may not be comparable.

Prince Albert Police Chief Patrick Nogier said the data reassures him where the force needs to dedicate its resources and attention.

“We need to be more efficient about determining how drugs are moving, where they’re moving within our communities, which ones are associated to which, so that we can have a better indication of who’s responsible for them,” he said during a press conference Thursday.

As for why cities in Saskatchewan are experiencing such a spike, Fornssler said there can be many contributors.

“It’s possible it’s the supply. It’s possible it’s the conditions that people are living in. It could also be related, and I think importantly in Saskatchewan, to our housing crisis and the lack of shelter availability,” she said.

She added that the closure of services like Prairie Harm, Saskatoon’s addiction treatment centre that shut its doors in 2025, is likely not contributing to a rise in drug use but is impacting how those who use can access appropriate supports.

“We are seeing elevated calls for ambulatory response. We’re seeing increases in the emergency department admissions. We are seeing greater demand on other systems that respond to drug-related harm,” she said.

While the wastewater survey provides a good overview for the eight communities who participate, Fornssler said she would like to see it expanded, and potentially even follow some of the methods that are being used in Europe.

“It’s my understanding based on data out of Europe … that they’ve been able to make some distinctions around the number of metabolites or the volume of metabolite in wastewater depending on how people are using the substance,” she said. “When you inject versus smoke versus snort, our bodies are gonna process that a little bit differently and it may result in greater or lower metabolite presence in the wastewater.”

She said understanding how people are using the drugs is valuable information for support services.

The City of Prince Albert said a daily count could help to better address the issue.

“That kind of data will help us to understand, for instance, when we see fluctuations, what else is going on at that time? What events are happening in the province or in the community that maybe contribute to that.”

Fornssler said in other countries public health officials and researchers are finding ways to link wastewater data with cellphone data to see how the levels of drugs in wastewater rise when people are concentrated for things like music festivals and other gatherings.

That’s not happening in Canada yet, but she said with the right additional supports, that could help some communities be better able to address drug problems within their communities.