It may have a role in rural and remote areas that are having problems accessing care, but it still is a capacity issue.
Frequently what we see in more rural and remote areas is a primary role through non-insured health benefits, first nations and Inuit health, and the national native alcohol and drug abuse program, NNADAP, with their counsellors providing that within the community more on site.
I think that the distribution of methamphetamine that we see in the province.... From my understanding we don't see a lot of local labs from our police services. Rather, it seems to be coming from out of province or indeed out of country, coming in from Mexico. The distribution tends to be more in the larger and regional centres rather than farther out into smaller rural and remote communities. This isn't to say that it doesn't get marketed there, doesn't get distributed there, but typically, because of the criminal organizations that are distributing these illicit drugs, they tend to go where the market is.
What we see with methamphetamine is that it seems to be directed toward poorer communities, which is perhaps why we see it more on the plains. Fentanyl is less of an issue in Saskatchewan, where 10% to 15% of our opioid-related deaths are due to fentanyl. The rest are due to prescription opioids, unlike in British Columbia or Alberta. Fentanyl is getting mopped up in those more western provinces when it's coming in from the coast. However, we see an increase in the marketing of methamphetamine.
Part of this is a marketing and distribution issue. To get to your core question, I think there's a role for telehealth, no question, but I think it needs to be targeted to community and resources that are on the ground.