Calgary city council has now twice declined to endorse the Alberta government’s plan to close the supervised consumption site (SCS) at the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre. Instead, council has asked for clarity on what would replace it.

That question remains unanswered.

This hesitation should not be mistaken for unanimity on supervised consumption services. Rather, it reflects a basic concern shared by health-care providers, community members and local businesses alike — what happens next?

If the Sheldon Chumir site closes, where do people go for help and support? And where does substance use move — to transit stations, alleyways, parks and neighbourhoods already struggling with visible disorder?

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We know that when provincial services are withdrawn without clear alternatives, municipalities are left to manage the consequences — often without the authority or resources to do so effectively.

Supervised consumption services do not create addiction. They respond to it. Their purpose is not to normalize drug use, but to reduce its most catastrophic outcomes: fatal overdose, untreated medical emergencies and public drug use occurring in unsafe, unsupervised spaces. At Sheldon Chumir, thousands of overdoses have been reversed. Thousands of lives have been saved.

These outcomes are not theoretical, they are documented and measurable. To dismiss these sites as a failed “experiment” ignores both local evidence and decades of international research.

The provincial government has emphasized recovery-oriented care, and that focus is essential. But recovery is not a single moment or policy lever. For many people, it is a long, non-linear process requiring support while they are using substances, while they are in treatment, during recovery and sometimes after relapse. The suggestion by an ex-minister of addictions and mental health that the risk of overdose or death should serve as an incentive for recovery is neither evidence-based nor ethical.

Death and abandonment should never be weaponized as policy tools.

Concerns about visible drug use, psychosis and disorder in Calgary’s downtown are real and should not be minimized. But closing the Sheldon Chumir site will not resolve them. Substance use will continue regardless of whether the site exists. The difference is whether it occurs in a supervised medical environment or in public spaces with no capacity to intervene.

Front-line workers — from police to paramedics to social workers — consistently report that those most harmed by service withdrawal are the most vulnerable, and that emergency pressures increase when harm-reduction supports disappear.

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What is striking about the closure announcement is not just the decision itself, but the absence of a broader plan. There have been no new housing commitments, no expansion of addiction or mental-health treatment capacity, no additional funding for homeless-serving organizations and no articulated decentralized harm-reduction strategy.

Closing a life-saving service embedded within a medical facility without replacement measures risks displacing harm rather than reducing it. Of note, numerous robust recovery services and addiction programs already exist near the Chumir. To remove the SCS and replace it with more of the same recovery services doesn’t quite make sense.

Ironically, decentralization has long been recognized as part of the solution. Concentrating services at Sheldon Chumir has created challenges, and alternatives have been discussed in the past, including partnerships with community organizations such as the Drop In Centre and Alpha House. Expanding inhalation services and deploying mobile or temporary overdose prevention sites that respond nimbly to geographic spikes in overdoses could reduce public drug use while maintaining safety.

These approaches are not incompatible with recovery, they are often prerequisites for it.

City council’s refusal to support closure without clarity reflects responsible governance, not ideological resistance. Municipal leaders are being asked to address public disorder, emergency response and community impacts without knowing what services, if any, will replace the ones being removed.

Abandoning a supervised consumption site without a plan is not a solution.

Public policy should aim to reduce preventable harm, not accept death as an outcome of convenience.

Courtney Walcott is a former city councillor for Ward 8, where Sheldon Chumir Health Centre is located.

Dr. Monty Ghosh is an addiction physician, researcher, and assistant professor at the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary.

© Calgary Herald