A Calgary city councillor is pushing to have the province shut down the supervised consumption site at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre and seek alternative options for recovery services.
Coun. Dan McLean put forward an emergency motion at an executive committee meeting on Wednesday morning, seeking council support to ask the Alberta government to close the site and invest in other prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery services and supports for people experiencing addictions and mental health challenges.
“Safety of Calgarians is paramount and it’s becoming more and more dangerous as every day goes by,” McLean said in an interview with Global News before Wednesday’s meeting.
“This is what all the citizens are saying. You just have to walk by it. It’s just not safe, they’re burning trees down, you’re stepping on needles. So the sooner we get this shut down the better.”
McLean’s motion was carried 9-1, a move that thrilled the councillor.
“We have to look at other alternatives, such as detox and some training, and I do not think that actually providing drugs to people then to go back out onto the street – we can use them in certain methods like I said detox, some prevention models and recovery. Recovery, to me, is the biggest model to get people back into society,” McLean said.
“We’re looking for more investments from the province. It is a provincial issue.”
In anticipation of the discussion, Mayor Jyoti Gondek sent a letter to Alberta’s mental health and addiction minister on Wednesday morning, asking for the province’s solution prior to any decision to close the site.
Get weekly health news
“Closing the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre supervised consumption site without proper alternatives will immediately force those seeking support on to the streets or into their homes, driving up drug poisoning deaths and creating unsafe situations throughout communities in Calgary,” Gondek wrote in her letter to Dan Williams.
“It will also create further issues, like people using drugs at transit stops because they know officers are there to respond to overdoses.
“There must be a comprehensive plan from the government of Alberta to deal with mental health and addictions treatment for Calgarians who desperately need supports, and that plan must also address issues of public safety that have been observed with the existing model.”
Global News has reached out to Williams’ office for a response to Gondek’s letter and will update this story once it is received.
In 2021, under former premier Jason Kenney’s government, the province said it would close the Safeworks supervised consumption site in the Sheldon Chumir centre, as part of a “city-by-city approach regarding the location of supervised consumption services.” However, the site remains open.
“I have no idea why they haven’t closed it. I would love to get a response to that,” Gondek said following the meeting Wednesday.
“This is the province’s responsibility. Explain to us what’s not working, why it’s not working and what you’re going to do differently.”
In her letter to Williams, Gondek said at that time, she agreed with the province’s assessment that the existing supervised consumption model in the city was not working as intended. Gondek was a councillor at the time. She said Wednesday she still agrees with the province’s 2021 assessment.
“I also agree with the position that more treatment beds are needed, and was very interested in your government’s musings in 2022 to combine addictions treatment with supervised consumption sites, as well as other ways to improve access to mental health and addictions support,” Gondek wrote in her letter.
McLean’s motion will now go to council for a full debate.
