Alberta shuts down supervised drug consumption site in Edmonton hospital

Alberta has closed one of three supervised consumption sites in Edmonton, continuing the push to shutter such locations as the province moves away from overdose prevention to focus on recovery and treatment.

The province closed the site at the downtown Royal Alexandra Hospital on Tuesday. It had provided sterile equipment for drug use and staffed supervision in case of an overdose.

In November, Mental Health and Addiction Minister Rick Wilson said the supervised consumption site would be replaced with a rapid access treatment site.

Recovery Alberta did not immediately provide details about when the treatment centre would be operational.

There are two remaining supervised consumption sites in Edmonton, at Radius Community Health and Healing and the George Spady Centre.

Alberta began 2025 with seven supervised consumption sites — three in Edmonton along with one each in Calgary, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie and Red Deer.

With the shuttering of the Royal Alexandra location and past closure in Red Deer, there are five remaining. That is expected to decrease.

Nathaniel Dueck, a spokesperson for Wilson’s ministry, says the province is planning to close Calgary’s only supervised consumption site, at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre, next year.

“Our government believes that anyone struggling with addiction deserves the opportunity to seek treatment and live a healthy and hopeful life,” Dueck wrote.

“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.”

WATCH | Disorder and addiction, expert weighs in on consumption sites and crime:

Does crime increase around supervised consumption sites?

As the future of Ontario’s supervised consumption sites goes before the courts, Metro Morning host David Common spoke to a researcher about whether the facilities actually lead to an increase in crime.

On Monday, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said the city had not formally discussed the supervised consumption site operations at Sheldon M. Chumir with the province, but says there needs to be a plan.

“We need to make sure that there’s a transition process and that we’re simply not just moving the social disorder and drug use from inside the Sheldon Chumir to outside into the nearby park and public spaces,” he said.

‘On the front lines’

Calgary’s firefighters say they also want to see a plan.

“[We] are on the front lines of the opioid epidemic, and our members are sadly dealing with more and more overdoses,” Jamie Blayney, the head of the Calgary Firefighters Association, said in a statement.

“We know that closing the [supervised consumption site] will not decrease overdoses, and we look forward to seeing what solutions the provincial government will bring forward.”

Earlier this year, Red Deer city council urged the Alberta government to replace the Red Deer Overdose Prevention Site with other harm reduction measures. At the time, city council said it planned to take a proactive approach to addressing the root causes of addiction and bolster its treatment services.

Like in Red Deer, municipal leadership in Lethbridge voted to request the Alberta government close the city’s overdose prevention unit “as part of the planned transition to recovery-focused services.”

Data from Alberta’s Substance use surveillance platform, posted up to the middle of this year, shows that the supervised consumption sites in Calgary and Lethbridge have consistently been the most visited sites since the middle of 2024.

A deadly crisis

In the past two years, both cities have also had a dramatic drop in the number of overdose deaths. The decline in Edmonton has been far less pronounced.

In Lethbridge in 2023, there was a rate of 109 deaths per 100,000 people. Data up until August this year shows that rate has plunged to fewer than 10.

Speaking to reporters last week, Mayor Blaine Hyggen said he introduced the motion to close the site because the money saved could be used for other critical programs, and expressed skepticism between the city’s supervised consumption site and the reduction in deaths.

Morgan Magnuson, a registered nurse and instructor at the University of Lethbridge, penned an open letter to Lethbridge City Council urging it rescind its motion, saying closure puts those who use the clinic at risk.

As of Tuesday, it had close to 800 signatures.