Alberta earmarks $180m for involuntary drug treatment sites

Alberta’s “compassionate intervention” for drug users is finally coming.

Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Dan Williams - Source: Facebook

Alberta’s “compassionate intervention” for drug users is finally coming.

The province announced Monday that Budget 2025 will allocate $180 million over three years to build two compassionate intervention centres, each with 150 secure beds. Construction is set to begin in 2026, with completion expected in 2029.

“For those suffering from addiction, there are two paths — they can let their addiction destroy and take their life, or they can enter recovery,” Smith said. “Alberta’s government is committed to providing a recovery-oriented system of care to ensure that those suffering from addiction have the opportunity to rebuild their lives.”

During the announcement, Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Dan Williams celebrated Alberta’s track record in battling the opioid crisis while taking aim at British Columbia.

Alberta reported a 39 per cent decline in opioid deaths in the first ten months of 2024 compared to 2023, whereas British Columbia saw only a 13 per cent decrease. Williams said Alberta’s opioid death reduction rate was 300 per cent higher than any other jurisdiction in Canada.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said there were two key ways to fight the opioid crisis. She said one is through policing, which she said is being addressed through her border security plan to stop fentanyl flowing over the border.

Smith said the second way was to focus on the victims, by emphasizing recovery.

“Compassionate intervention is going to create a process to order those people into care so they can get the treatment that they need, get clear-minded, have their brains heal from their addiction, and hopefully set them up for a lifetime of success in sobriety,” she said of the forthcoming legislation.

Despite Alberta leading the country, Williams said it isn’t enough for those who are unwilling or unable to find a way into treatment.

He cited a case where an individual overdosed 186 times in one year—a figure he said is likely even higher, as not all overdoses are reported.

“The last thing that I want to see, or anybody wants to see, is that be one of our family members or friends, and it be the 187th time that takes that individual’s life,” said Williams. “We will not sit back while we watch this happen to Alberta, to our loved ones and our communities, and to the loved ones and our family who are suffering from this deadly disease of addiction.”

He said that compassionate intervention is the last hope of recovery for some, adding the whole country has gone too long without implementing compassionate intervention and that walking through any downtown core and seeing those struggling with addiction is all the proof needed.

“What society has done for too long is simply not working,” said Williams.

He pointed to the policies promoted by British Columbia’s NDP government as an example of what not to do.

“No more facilitation of failed policies coming out of the West Coast, and activists who think that we shouldn’t be trying to help people with healthcare and heal them, but instead continue and facilitate the harm; those policies have failed,” said Williams. “We care for the sense of public safety that is being eroded as well under the policies we see under the Vancouver model. It’s time for a different path that restores hope and humanity and dignity to families and individuals.”

He said that Albertans deserve more than policies that have led to the chaos seen in the Vancouver neighbourhood of East Hastings and increasingly across other communities.

Smith previously warned of safe supply drugs seeping into Alberta from B.C.

Police in B.C. warned that so-called “safe supply” drugs were being sold on the street. Police made a similar warning in London, Ont.

Two Albertans shared devastating stories of their family members who couldn’t overcome addiction. They said that compassionate intervention might have saved them.

“Those suffering from severe addiction may not be able to choose treatment rationally. The notion of choice is almost non-existing, as everything pales in comparison to the pursuit of the next high,” said Amy Schiffner, the mother of an adult suffering from addiction.

She said that what addicts need is a safe environment to recover until they are ready to re-engage with their lives and that, as a mother, she should have the choice to save her son from himself.

While Williams was reluctant to discuss the upcoming legislation in great detail before it was implemented, he said this was a healthcare policy, not a justice policy.

He said that family members, guardians, law enforcement, and healthcare professionals could petition those who are an extreme risk to society or themselves to be forced into care. He added that a commission will be appointed to protect civil liberties.