Alberta Government to Change Calgary Drug Consumption Site to Treatment Centre

People wait to enter the Safeworks supervised consumption site at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in Calgary, Alta., on Aug. 26, 2021. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

The Alberta government says it will be closing a drug consumption site in Calgary that has sparked years of debate between the province and the city.

Minister of Mental Health Rick Wilson confirmed the move in a statement provided to The Epoch Times.

“We are moving to close the Calgary drug consumption site located in the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in 2026, and transition to treatment services on demand,” Wilson said in the statement. The news was first reported on by the Calgary Herald.

Wilson added that the provincial government believes anyone struggling with addiction deserves an opportunity for treatment to “live a healthy and hopeful life.”

“We also believe that Albertans should feel safe where they live and work, and businesses should be able to operate without disturbance from social disorder,” the minister said.

Wilson said that no specific timeline for the site closure has been set, adding that the government continues to work with municipal partners and agencies. He said they wanted to ensure those facing addiction challenges had the supports they need.

The move comes about three weeks after the province announced it was closing the drug consumption site at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton.

NDP shadow minister for health and addictions Janet Eremenko said at the time it was an “ideological decision” by the United Conservative Party.

“It does not address the issues and, in fact, I can imagine will only return us to the exact same conditions that required the creation of it in the first place,” she said in a Nov. 21 post on social media.

The province previously said it wanted Calgary to take the lead on the closure of the site, while then-Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the city had been waiting for years for the province to come up with a solution.

Then-Addictions Minister Dan Williams wrote a letter to Calgary’s city council in October 2024 over the issue, where he asked the mayor and council for their position on closing down the drug consumption site and transitioning it to addiction recovery care. Williams said the province was ready to help develop a “comprehensive addiction recovery plan.”

Gondek responded to the letter on social media, saying decisions over drug consumption sites are with the province. She also said she agreed with a 2021 decision by the province that said the existing supervised consumption model in Calgary was not working and had “detrimental impacts” for neighbourhoods and businesses.

“I agreed with the assessment then, and I still do,” she wrote in a post.