Alberta government to cut Red Deer overdose prevention site hours ahead of spring 2025 closure
CBC
Operating hours at the Red Deer overdose prevention site could be cut in half within weeks as the Alberta government moves toward complete closure in 2025.
The province announced in September that it would shutter the city's only supervised drug-consumption service next spring. The OPS funding is being redirected to an addiction medicine clinic, "recovery coach" outreach workers and additional detox services at Red Deer's Safe Harbour homeless shelter.
Overdose response teams staffed by nurses and paramedics will also patrol in and around the shelter, with 12-hour overnight shifts expected to start Jan. 1, 2025.
Once that begins, 24-hour supervised consumption services in Red Deer will be reduced to 12 hours every day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to an affidavit from an official in Alberta's ministry of mental health and addiction. By April 1, the overdose teams will be working around the clock, and the OPS will close.
The affidavit says that the change is happening in stages, "In order to ensure a smooth transition and that no individuals are left without care."
The document was filed in the Red Deer Court of King's Bench last week in response to legal action from Red Deer resident Aaron Brown, who has been diagnosed with severe opioid use disorder and relies on OPS services daily.
"It is terrifying to imagine what my life will become once the Red Deer OPS closes," Brown said in a November affidavit.
"It will essentially be a death sentence for me and the many others who use the facility."
Brown's lawyer, Avnish Nanda, filed the application on Nov. 18, alleging that shutting down supervised consumption services in Red Deer violates the Charter rights of substance users in the central Alberta city.
"There are hundreds of people who rely on this site each month. There are thousands of individual consumption events at the Red Deer OPS," Nanda said.
"This is as urgent as it gets."
Nanda is also seeking an injunction to halt the OPS closure. He said after learning about plans for stopping overnight services, he wants the application to be heard as soon as possible.
"This seems to come out of nowhere, and folks are not ready for this major change," he said.
The allegations in the legal filings have not been proven in court.
The province is looking to eliminate time limits for victims of intimate partner violence seeking civil justice.
A former Quebec junior hockey player sentenced to prison last year for sexual assault will get a new trial.
People who use the Indigenous-led overnight shelter on the edge of downtown Winnipeg are weighing their next steps after learning the facility is set to shut down, but Manitoba's premier says nobody will get left behind.
An 81-year-old man from Prince County has died after a single-vehicle crash on Route 14 near Christopher Cross, police say.
The B.C. government has raised the ceiling to $75,000 for potential damages over intimate-image abuse.
A man was found dead inside a house on Elm Street in Niagara Falls after it caught fire on Wednesday night, police say.
It’s been eight days since Suncor’s Sarnia refinery reported an oil spill into the St. Clair River, and it remains unclear what caused the pipeline leak, how much got into the water — and where cleanup efforts are at.
A joint operation involving Edmonton police has led to the deportation of two men, over what police say is a wave of extortions targeting the city's South Asian community.
Red Lake is hoping a petition will help it land federal funding for a new arena.
An N.W.T. MLA says the territory needs to fiercely protect treaty rights and territorial waters, amid Alberta’s merger of two major river basins, and the proposed treatment and release of oilsands tailings into the environment.
The Supreme Court of Canada will hear arguments against the Liberal government's deeply controversial decision to outlaw certain firearms.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is rejecting Opposition accusations of entitlement for using a private jet last fall courtesy of the Saudi government.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s department of Transportation and Infrastructure is promising policy changes after a Conception Bay South family spoke out about the expropriation and resale of the land where their home once stood.