Feds approve first supervised consumption site in Calgary

It’s been a longer wait than local and provincial politicians would’ve liked, but the federal government has approved the first supervised consumption site in Calgary for opioid use.

Alberta’s Associate Minister of Health Brandy Payne made the announcement Friday from the site’s future home at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre.

“We received the formal letter today, which we wanted to share our very good news as quickly as possible,” Payne said.

Five other sites were approved for Alberta last week, including four in Edmonton and one in Lethbridge.

But with a temporary site opening in a few weeks in the centre’s parking lot, Calgary will be the first to offer services in the province.

The wait for the approval, however, has been the subject of frustration for some local and provincial politicians and Payne addressed the issue.

“I absolutely think that this process has taken longer than we would’ve liked and I certainly hope that any future applications are processed more quickly,” she said.

But Payne said some of that had to do with the Liberals changing application criteria from what the Conservatives had in place.

“When we started this process, there was one official supervised consumption service in our country and now there are approximately two dozen applications that have been approved,” she said. “There’s also been a lot of learning in the process of going through the applications.

As of August, there have 315 fentanyl-related overdose deaths in Alberta this year, with 149 of them happening in Calgary.

On hand for the announcement was Jessica Holtsbaum, the co-founder of Changing the Face of Addiction, who lost her brother Nathan to an overdose.

He was prescribed an opioid painkiller after hurting his back but passed away in February of last year after the prescription led him to addiction, eventually to street drugs including fentanyl.

“He was alone when he overdosed, he was alone and we didn’t understand the grasp of fentanyl at that time,” she said. “Every day that has gone by without this service has potentially cost a Calgarians their life.”

The temporary site will always have three staff on duty, including two people in the site at all times.

CPS Deputy Chief Sat Parhar said senior staff met with all downtown officers to ensure public safety in the area.

“We want people to use this facility in a responsible way, anything that happens in this community outside of that will have to deal with us,” he said. “It’ll be a great learning experience for us and we know that there will be moments we won’t be perfect, but we’re sure going to try to be perfect.”

All consumption types will be permitted with the exception of smoking.

The provincial cost is $2.2 million for start-up costs and renovations to both the temporary and permanent sites and the provincial government will also be providing additional operational funding for all six sites.