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

Andrew Jeffrey · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 30, 2025 10:57 AM EDT | Last Updated: 14 minutes ago

Four years aft the state archetypal announced it planned to adjacent Calgary's lone supervised depletion site, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said connected Saturday that her authorities is looking astatine shutting the tract down.

Smith discussed the SCS astatine the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre successful cardinal Calgary connected her biweekly vigor show, Your Province Your Premier. She said she's prepared to enactment connected shutting the tract down, adding that she's tasked Dan Williams, Alberta's curate of intelligence wellness and addiction, to look into the matter.

The premier's comments travel a missive that Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek wrote to Smith earlier this week, urging contiguous consultation astir the site's future.

"I deliberation we've heard for a agelong clip that residents privation it gone. We haven't had arsenic wide an denotation from the full [city] council," Smith said.

"We've been asking for that wide denotation from council. They didn't privation to springiness it. The politician seems to beryllium supportive, truthful we're going to enactment connected shutting it down."

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

In her letter, Gondek besides requested the metropolis and state signifier a associated moving group to find solutions to ongoing concerns surrounding Calgary's SCS. 

She said the hold successful moving the SCS to a caller location, oregon providing enhanced addiction attraction successful its place, is causing "significant interest and distress."

Calgary's SCS archetypal opened its doors successful 2018 arsenic portion of the province's effect to the opioid epidemic. Since then, it's both been lauded arsenic a life-saving service, and targeted with disapproval from opponents who blasted it for nationalist cause usage and calls to constabulary successful its vicinity. Rather than shutting the SCS down, immoderate wellness experts person argued that concerns astir nationalist cause usage successful the country could alternatively beryllium alleviated by further sites astir the metropolis and expanded services successful the Chumir location.

In 2021, the state announced it would adjacent the tract and unfastened 2 replacement facilities determination other successful the city. But since then, the SCS has remained unfastened with nary replacement oregon expanded services successful Calgary.

City assembly debated successful October whether it should telephone connected the state to adjacent the site, but yet voted against weighing successful connected the matter. Gondek noted that pursuing the vote, Smith said she planned to consult Calgarians astir the site's future, but has not followed through.

After Smith's comments connected Saturday, Gondek pointed retired that intelligence wellness and addiction attraction is the provincial government's responsibility, truthful asking for absorption from her and metropolis assembly is simply a non-starter. Her missive stressed she'd similar to see "concrete action" and a wide timeline to instrumentality an alternate oregon expanded services to the Chumir site.

"We person unsafe conditions for Calgarians. We request to beryllium funny successful nationalist safety, we request to beryllium funny successful helping those who are struggling with addictions, and I'm conscionable seeing a batch of breached promises," Gondek said connected Saturday.

She added she's inactive waiting to perceive what benignant of replacement services the Alberta authorities plans to offer. Gondek has antecedently argued the city's SCS shouldn't adjacent without due alternatives already acceptable up successful its place.

"How volition you regenerate this site, erstwhile volition you bash it and erstwhile volition you really bash the consultation with Calgarians?" Gondek said, directing her questions to Smith.

Earlier this week, Dan Williams responded to Gondek's missive saying he's not funny successful moving Calgary's SCS or opening much supervised depletion sites astir the city.

He added that if the metropolis wants to spot different SCS successful Calgary, it's their work to determine wherever it should open.

"I'm funny successful seeing if the metropolis wants to spouse with maine to modulation retired of cause depletion services and into recovery-oriented services," Williams told reporters earlier this week.

Smith said portion of the crushed for a hold successful enactment connected Calgary's SCS is due to the fact that her authorities was waiting for a tribunal decision on Red Deer's overdose prevention tract (OPS).

Red Deer's site will adjacent astatine the extremity of March, pursuing a judge's determination released Wednesday that denied a petition to support it open. City assembly passed a question successful February 2024 asking the state to unopen the site down.

On Saturday, a spokesperson for Williams said the state volition person much to accidental aboriginal astir circumstantial adjacent steps regarding the SCS astatine the Chumir.