Opposition urges state of emergency over opioids

All the opposition parties have called for an emergency to be declared, pointing to British Columbia’s recent declaration amid a spiralling opioid problem there.

Officials in the health ministry said B.C. declared the state of emergency to suspend certain freedom of information rules to allow that province to track drug overdoses. Alberta already has access to that data and the province says it has the most comprehensive opioid data in Canada.

The government’s quarterly reports on the problem have been getting increasingly grim. Alberta saw 113 deaths from fentanyl in the first quarter of 2017, a 61-per-cent increase compared to the previous year. The fourth quarter of 2016 registered 119 deaths.

Alberta Liberal Leader Dr. David Swann, a physician and advocate on the issue, has asked the government to declare a state of emergency and to bring back the position of chief addictions and mental health officer.

Swann said Wednesday’s announcement doesn’t go far enough and “doesn’t reflect the urgency and the importance of the situation.”

While the government has said a medical state of emergency is not needed to address the crisis, Swann said it would go a long way toward creating that needed urgency.

The commission, which will be co-chaired by Dr. Karen Grimsrud, the province’s chief medical officer of health, and Dr. Elaine Hyshka, from the Royal Alex’s Inner City Health and Wellness Program, is made up of doctors, police officers, front line workers and people who have lost family members to drug overdoses.