Red Deer city council asked the province to remove the site and increase options for recovery services
The Alberta government is planning to shutter the drug consumption site in Red Deer next year.
It follows a request from Red Deer city council last February to close the site and fund recovery services instead.
The site had been operating since 2018 in an Atco trailer next to the Safe Harbour Society’s detox building.
“Our government will always listen to and take seriously the feedback we receive from elected local leaders. This is a well thought out plan that aligns with Red Deer’s needs and requests, which is why the province is making these changes and increasing support for the community,” Mental Health and Addiction Minister Dan Williams said in a statement.
Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston said in an interview that he believes the changes will offer “a far more sustainable path to recovery” than was previously available.
“What we see here is additional treatment beds, recovery coaches, more medical staff in the field,” he said.
“When I see the rollout of these resources and the money behind them, I’m very confident that this is a successful way forward.”
Eighteen people in Red Deer have died due to drug poisoning up to the end of May this year, according to the government data, compared to 29 over the same time period last year.
Petra Schulz with Moms Stop the Harm — a national organization of families who have been impacted by the toxic drug crisis — says those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
“You have to see how the entire year is going and it’s on the record that 2023 was the worst year ever. So, after five years of a recovery oriented system of care, all we see is more death,” she said.
“Dead people don’t recover.”
Schulz says it’s too simple to divide solutions to the drug crisis into recovery versus harm reduction approaches, saying both are needed to help those struggling with addiction.
“Consumption sites are a vital element of that spectrum in terms of saving lives, but also keeping people well and connecting them with services,” she said.
Housing is another key part of the solution, Schulz said, and that closing the site will cost lives.
“The good people of Red Deer will think if we take the consumption site away, these unhoused people who use on our streets will go away. But, that will not be the case, there will be more people using on the streets of Red Deer because they no longer have a safe place to go.”
She called on the government to take a more balanced approach and offer quicker access to services, including its recovery community located in Red Deer.
“It seems to be a program that produces results,” she said of the recovery community. “But, it takes six to eight months to get in there.”
“If you tell people in Red Deer, I’m closing your consumption site, but at best in six to eight months you can get into this recovery community, that person will tell you, ‘In six to eight months, I won’t be here.’”