Saskatoon, Saskatchewan's safe consumption site provides a sizeable social and economic return on investment

The relative social value of safe consumption sites (SCS) in Canada is hotly debated, with sites facing community, media, and political backlash. Despite attempts to highlight community need and benefits of SCS, funding denials and site closures have repeatedly occurred.

The objective of the current study was to highlight the social and economic value of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan's SCS for relevant groups, including people who access services (PWAS), loved ones of PWAS, the broader community, business owners, and government systems and service (e.g., hospitals, police). This was achieved by conducting a social return on investment (SROI) using Social Value International's framework. Social value was calculated by assigning financial proxies to represent the social, economic, and environmental value created by each outcome for each of the material groups, adding these values together, factoring in counterfactual variables, and dividing this number by the yearly operational costs of the SCS. Outcomes were determined via participant interviews (N = 26) and reviewing SCS administrative data. To avoid overclaiming, the study took a conservative approach whereby the lowest financial valuation options were assigned to each outcome and negative outcomes for each relevant group were accounted for.

The study found that for every dollar invested in the SCS operations, an estimated $4.44 CAD in social and economic value is created for all material groups.

Overall, the study demonstrated that Saskatoon, Saskatchewan's SCS provides a sizeable social and economic return on investment for several relevant groups.