$10M funding for recovery centres announced
Premier announces a $10M investment into two locations in southern Alberta
Premier Jason Kenney sharply criticized harm reduction services Saturday, saying it’s not compassionate to “facilitate addiction.”
Kenney’s comments about supervised drug sites, some of his most pointed yet on the issue, came as he announced a $10-million investment into two addictions treatment and recovery centres in southern Alberta.
The sites, planned for Lethbridge County and the Blood Tribe First Nation, are two of five recovery communities being built across Alberta. The first site was announced in Red Deer last weekend, when Kenney also panned supervised drug-consumption sites.
“Handing somebody who’s deep in addiction a needle is not a continuum of care. I don’t even think it’s terribly compassionate to facilitate addiction rather than to offer a full spectrum of services for recovery and lifetime treatment. That is the approach we are taking,” Kenney said Saturday.
“Recovery communities, also known as therapeutic communities, are a new state-of-the-art approach to addiction treatment and recovery. It’s a long-term holistic treatment for people struggling with substance abuse, trauma and mental-health issues.”
Kenney said $5 million will be invested into a 75-bed recovery community on the Blood Tribe First Nation, which will be operated, managed and administered by the Blood Tribe.
Another $5 million will help create a 50-bed recovery community in the Lethbridge area.
During Saturday’s announcement, the premier made multiple references to the government-ordered supervised consumption site report released in March that detailed a “system of chaos” related to the social and economic effects of existing sites in Alberta.
That report has since been dismissed by academics, scientists and medical experts across the country who cite flawed methodology and clear bias. The merits of supervised consumption services as a tool for harm reduction was not considered in the review.
Kenney questioned whether the “harm reduction obsession is really successful” before talking about the Insite Supervised Injection Site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, saying it has led to “human carnage” nearby.
He made no reference to established evidence of the merit of supervised consumption sites.
“For too long, public health policy on addictions has been monopolized on a single-minded approach, and that involved in part setting up drug-consumption sites — consumption sites that are at best about managing addiction rather than treating it,” he said.
Matt Dykstra, spokesperson for Alberta’s Opposition NDP caucus, said investments into health services and addictions supports in southern Alberta are “critical” but there needs to be a broad range of care.
“Without supervised consumption, Albertans struggling with addictions may overdose alone, never making it to treatment and recovery,” said Dykstra. “We must focus on saving lives and treating addiction at every step of the way.”
The supervised consumption site in Calgary’s Beltline has responded to 1,821 overdoses between October 2017 and May 2020 with 151,129 client visits. There have been no deaths.
In Lethbridge, staff at the now defunded ARCHES drug-use site have responded to 3,590 medical emergencies between February 2018 and June 2020. In the same time period, about 445,000 people visited the site.
Its funding was cancelled after an audit that found more than $1.6 million in unaccounted funds and other “misappropriated” public money.
Alberta Health Services said the provincial sites are part of a range of evidence-based services to support drug users in Alberta and offer, in addition to a monitored environment for substance use, a gateway to other services such as counselling, social work and treatment programs.
Saturday’s funding announcement is a necessary investment to aid the Blood Tribe community, said Charles Weaselhead, former chief of the First Nation, especially considering drug addiction has a massive effect on the lives of many.
“As we know, opioid addiction spreads like a thread in the whole fabric of our communities,” Weaselhead said. “The combination of treatment and providing a culturally appropriate setting is proven to be very effective.”
First Nations individuals are three to five times more likely to die from opioid overdose than non-indigenous Albertans, he added.
The Blood Tribe has declared a state of emergency twice since 2015 in relation to substance overdoses.
Kenney also said the government is committing $1 million annually to upgrade 16 detox beds in the Fort Macleod Foothills Centre, and $1.2 million annually to add upwards of 15 detox and transition beds in Lethbridge.
“The recovery community experience is about far more than just abstinence from drug use, although that is obviously essential, but it is about confronting the realities of life and learning how to cope with them and becoming a strong, self-reliant and full-functioning person,” said Kenney.
The initial investment is part of a $25-million package to build five recovery communities.