At least 13 children under the age of five died in Saskatchewan with toxic, illicit drugs in their system over a six-year period, according to the province’s advocate for children and youth.

Drug exposure directly caused or contributed to the child’s death in three of those cases, Lisa Broda said in her 2025 annual report, which includes a special section on her nascent investigation into the “emerging pattern” of cases coming to her office that involve children with fentanyl and methamphetamine in their system.

The sudden increase in drug exposure cases among children is “deeply troubling,” Broda said at a news conference on Wednesday.

“We don’t know exactly how it gets in their systems,” Broda said. “It could be a few grains of fentanyl left on a table.… It could be breast milk, you know, babies breastfeeding. That’s what we can assume.”

The special investigation into toxic drug exposure among youth is in its early stages, but Broda plans to have a better picture of how exposures happen and what can be done to prevent them when the full report is complete.

She said collecting data from multiple provincial ministries and agencies is difficult.

“The lack of disaggregated data collection and inconsistencies and reporting processes across child serving ministries leaves gaps in knowledge and consequently gaps in how best to conduct prevention,” Broda said.

“The notifications to our office represent only a fraction of what’s happening for children in Saskatchewan.”

The advocate’s office reviewed available data from provincial ministries for cases from 2019 to 2025 that involved children under five who died or sought medical treatment after exposure to illicit drugs. The advocate’s report notes the review of 2025 cases is not complete.

“Of those three [deaths], two children died of exposure to methamphetamine, and one to fentanyl,” the report said.

“Of the remaining 10 children, three children died by other accident or illness, and seven died by undetermined causes. In these cases, the extent to which the drug was contributory could not be definitively determined by the Coroners Service.”

While the report focused on illegal drugs, the advocate’s office warned that children are also at risk for exposure to prescription medication, citing data from the health-care system that “indicates high rates of hospital treatment in children under age five for exposure to benzodiazepines … antiepileptic and sedative-hypnotic drugs, and hydromorphone.”

The children and youth advocate office is an independent agency that investigates child deaths and public complaints about government services.

It typically receives 1,800 to 2,000 files to investigate every year. In 2025, 42 injuries and 30 deaths of children and youth were reported to the office, according to the annual report.