EDMONTON — Today Recovery Alberta issued a brief memo to inform staff and physicians at Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital that they are closing the facility’s Supervised Consumption Service (SCS) effective December 16, 2025. Instead, they will be establishing “recovery-oriented” addiction services in the facility, details of which were not provided.
“Today’s announcement is yet another blow to evidence-based addictions care,” says Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “This government’s ideological opposition to evidence-based, life-saving care interventions will put Albertans at unnecessary risk of avoidable drug poisoning, and put our health care systems under even more strain.”
This is the latest in a string of harm reduction service cuts and closures in Alberta. Since establishing Recovery Alberta, the provincial government has doggedly pursued an ideological approach to addictions care, including aggressive shift towards underregulated private and for-profit services, and passing legislation to allow forced treatment even despite considerable evidence showing this approach puts Albertans at further risk of harm and more fatalities.
“The fact is, these harm reduction services save lives,” said Gallaway. “There is a wealth of research to show that we need to be providing a full spectrum of services to ensure people have timely access to the care they need, and most importantly: can live long enough to access it.”
Alberta remains in a drug poisoning crisis, with multiple lives lost every day due to a lack of access. This summer, the Edmonton region hit an all-time monthly high for drug poisoning deaths.
An audit of Recovery Alberta by the Auditor General is currently underway, announced amid the office's ongoing investigation into the allegations of potential corruption in how health care contracts have been awarded to private surgical companies.
“Addictions care is health care. And Albertans deserve for our health care decisions to be based on the best medical evidence, not politics and ideology. Too much is at stake for the government to keep ignoring the evidence and the care Albertans need during this ongoing drug poisoning crisis,” concluded Gallaway.
Friends of Medicare continues to encourage Albertans to support our calls for urgent, evidence-based action to save lives in the drug poisoning crisis.
-30-