Former police chief to chair drug site review
An Alberta government review into supervised drug consumption sites will focus on crime and safety in nearby communities, leaving out analysis of how those services help to reduce harm.
An eight-person committee chaired by former Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht will be tasked with studying the “social and economic impacts” of supervised consumption services, associate minister of mental health and addictions Jason Luan announced Monday.
The panel will hear from site operators, businesses, elected officials and other stakeholders, according to the UCP government.
The review encompasses all existing and proposed sites across Alberta. There are seven supervised consumption sites in Alberta, including four in Edmonton and one in Calgary.
A mobile unit proposed for Calgary’s Forest Lawn community, along with two other proposed sites in Red Deer and Medicine Hat, are also under review.
The Ucp-appointed panel will engage with communities where services exist or are proposed — including Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Red Deer, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat — over three to four weeks in September.
People will be able to submit their input at town halls, as well as online.
The committee will then analyze the evidence and submit a report to the government by the end of the year.
The committee’s work will focus on crime rates, needle debris, complaints of social disorder, residential property values, emergency medical services calls, business impacts, referrals to treatment providers and overdose reversals.
The merits of supervised consumption services as a harm reduction tool is not considered within the scope of the review, Luan said. Other social issues such as housing and homelessness also won’t be considered.
That’s because the UCP already has “wealths of information supporting the merits of supervised consumption sites,” Luan said, adding the science behind those services is “well-established” and “it makes no sense” to rehash it.
But complaints from neighbouring businesses and residents have “been completely ignored,” according to Luan, who last week toured Calgary’s supervised consumption site at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre. “We’re trying to balance the system. What we’re doing now is the community side of impact,” he said.
The panel includes:
Rod Knecht, chair, Prof. Geri Iininaatoáákii Bemister-williams, vice-chair, Dr. Charl Els, addiction specialist and occupational physician, Joan Hollihan, mother who lost her 16-year-old son to fentanyl poisoning, Dr. Rob Tanguay, lead for the Alberta Opioid Dependency Treatment Virtual Training program, Dr. Ray Baker, retired B.C. physician specializing in recovery-oriented continuing care, Paul Maxim, former economics professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, Steve Cormack, Red Deer real estate associate and 24-year RCMP member.
A government spokesperson said the panel doesn’t include a representative who has worked at an existing supervised consumption site.
For Petra Schulz, whose 25-yearold son Danny died of a fentanyl overdose in 2014, the UCP’S assessment is the wrong approach. She said the opioid crisis is a public health issue that shouldn’t be analyzed from a socio-economic lens.
“To me, it seems like someone’s property value is more important than the life of my child, the life of a person who uses substances,” said Schulz, a co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm. “It’s deeply upsetting because we’ve fought very hard to get these services in place. They work. They save lives.”
She questioned the composition of the panel, which doesn’t include a user of supervised consumption services.
“I don’t think that panel has a very deep level of expertise in harm reduction at all, so that concerns me,” Schulz said.
Knecht served as chief of Edmonton police for more than seven years, retiring in October 2018.
He previously served as senior deputy commissioner of the RCMP.
In 2017, Knecht penned a column which backed supervised consumption services in Edmonton, so long as such a facility “focuses on rehabilitation as opposed to consumption.”
But surrounding residents shouldn’t have to fear about the safety of their homes or vehicles because of a supervised consumption site, he added.
“A facility that focuses too much on enabling the illicit use of drugs at the expense of treatment falls drastically short of the care that an addict needs,” Knecht wrote.
Knecht said Monday that he sees supervised sites as “part of a continuum of dealing with addictions.”
“We obviously want to get ahead of addiction and from a public safety or policing perspective, that means looking at those that are trafficking in illicit drugs,” he said.
“But I think you also want to look at … getting them off that cycle of despair.”
Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson praised Knecht’s appointment to the committee.
“We’ve always seen the safe consumption sites as a stop gap against a larger need for prevention and addiction treatment and housing services,” he said. “And I think the former chief understands that logic and will be able to bring it to the table. So, he’s got really relevant first-hand experience.”
Bemister-williams, the committee’s vice-chair, is a criminologist and post-secondary instructor who has worked with First Nations organizations to address ongoing social issues.
In responding to the opioid crisis, she has argued for less emphasis on harm reduction in favour of improved access to treatment and recovery programs. Bemister-williams, in long-term recovery herself, has spoken about how she chose abstinence over drug-replacement therapy.
“We’re on a fact-finding mission. We’re gathering evidence and therefore when investigating anything, we don’t exclude or come to the table with assumptions,” she said. “Right now it’s a blank slate.”
Premier Jason Kenney has said the review would determine if existing sites “should be relocated.”
NDP critic for mental health and addictions Heather Sweet questioned the impartiality of the government panel, calling its members “clearly biased.”
“Ultimately, without these sites, people will not have a place to go,” Sweet said.
“I recognize that businesses are concerned. But if these sites are closed, people will die in the back alley of these businesses. They’ll die in front of these businesses, they’ll die in our libraries, they’ll die in our public bathrooms.”