Alberta looking into shutting down supervised consumption site in Calgary: premier

Four years after the province first announced it planned to close Calgary's only supervised consumption site, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on Saturday that her government is looking at shutting the site down.

Smith discussed the SCS at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in central Calgary on her biweekly radio show, Your Province Your Premier. She said she's prepared to work on shutting the site down, adding that she's tasked Dan Williams, Alberta's minister of mental health and addiction, to look into the matter.

The premier's comments follow a letter that Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek wrote to Smith earlier this week, urging immediate consultation about the site's future.

"I think we've heard for a long time that residents want it gone. We haven't had as clear an indication from the entire [city] council," Smith said.

"We've been asking for that clear indication from council. They didn't want to give it. The mayor seems to be supportive, so we're going to work on shutting it down."

But Gondek responded on Saturday by noting that rather than calling for the Chumir site's closure, she instead was calling for follow-through on the province's previous commitments to consult Calgarians and provide replacement services.

In her letter, Gondek also requested the city and province form a joint working group to find solutions to ongoing concerns surrounding Calgary's SCS. 

She said the delay in moving the SCS to a new location, or providing enhanced addiction care in its place, is causing "significant concern and distress."

Calgary's SCS first opened its doors in 2018 as part of the province's response to the opioid epidemic. Since then, it's both been lauded as a life-saving service, and targeted with criticism from opponents who blame it for public drug use and calls to police in its vicinity. Rather than shutting the SCS down, some health experts have argued that concerns around public drug use in the area could instead be alleviated by additional sites around the city and expanded services in the Chumir location.

In 2021, the province announced it would close the site and open two replacement facilities somewhere else in the city. But since then, the SCS has remained open with no replacement or expanded services in Calgary.

City council debated in October whether it should call on the province to close the site, but ultimately voted against weighing in on the matter. Gondek noted that following the vote, Smith said she planned to consult Calgarians about the site's future, but has not followed through.

After Smith's comments on Saturday, Gondek pointed out that mental health and addiction treatment is the provincial government's responsibility, so asking for direction from her and city council is a non-starter. Her letter stressed she'd like to see "concrete action" and a clear timeline to implement an alternative or expanded services to the Chumir site.

"We have unsafe conditions for Calgarians. We need to be interested in public safety, we need to be interested in helping those who are struggling with addictions, and I'm just seeing a lot of broken promises," Gondek said on Saturday.

She added she's still waiting to hear what kind of replacement services the Alberta government plans to offer. Gondek has previously argued the city's SCS shouldn't close without proper alternatives already set up in its place.

"How will you replace this site, when will you do it and when will you actually do the consultation with Calgarians?" Gondek said, directing her questions to Smith.

Earlier this week, Dan Williams responded to Gondek's letter saying he's not interested in moving Calgary's SCS or opening more supervised consumption sites around the city.

He added that if the city wants to see another SCS in Calgary, it's their responsibility to decide where it should open.

"I'm interested in seeing if the city wants to partner with me to transition out of drug consumption services and into recovery-oriented services," Williams told reporters earlier this week.

Smith said part of the reason for a delay in action on Calgary's SCS is because her government was waiting for a court decision on Red Deer's overdose prevention site (OPS).

Red Deer's site will close at the end of March, following a judge's decision released Wednesday that denied a request to keep it open. City council passed a motion in February 2024 asking the province to shut the site down.

On Saturday, a spokesperson for Williams said the province will have more to say later about specific next steps regarding the SCS at the Chumir.