Safeworks site closing, addiction clinic to open at Beltline location

The Safeworks supervised consumption site at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre will close on June 30, ending eight years of operations in the Beltline. Recovery Alberta will replace it with a Rapid Access Addiction Medicine clinic, opening July 1.

The new clinic will be accompanied by a Recovery Response Team based out of the Chumir centre, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Services will include rapid access to addiction recovery medications, nursing assessment, peer support, recovery management, and connections to social supports and addiction treatment services.

The clinic will expand access to multidisciplinary health professionals, including registered nurses, social workers, peer supports, addiction counsellors, and mental-health supports. Recovery Alberta will also offer increased access to withdrawal management and recovery supports.

Safeworks, which opened in late 2017, became a polarizing addition to the surrounding neighbourhood. Proponents cited its role in saving lives and diverting people away from the health-care system. Opponents raised concerns about social disorder in the area and objected to public funds supporting illegal drug consumption.

The closure reflects the province's shift toward what officials call the "recovery model," which emphasizes treatment, rehabilitation, and detoxification services over harm reduction. "We'll give them the help that they need and that's the whole point of the whole thing, is not enabling people to keep living in a pit of despair, is to actually get them the help that they need — because there is help out there, so many good programs right now around recovery," said Mental Health and Addictions Minister Rick Wilson.

Safeworks clients have expressed concerns about the transition. One client, identifying himself as Jay, said the replacement isn't straightforward. "People are not going to go (for treatment), you need to break the ice first," he said. He emphasized that Safeworks provided more than a place to safely inject; it also enabled him to find sobriety.

Alberta plans to establish 11 long-term, live-in addiction treatment facilities across the province, including five in Indigenous communities, by early 2027. One such facility opened in Calgary's Southview community last summer, operated by Last Door Recovery Society with 74 beds and capacity to treat up to 300 patients per year.