Alberta’s Minister of Mental Health and Addictions said it’s the City of Calgary’s responsibility to give them feedback on the closure of Sheldon Chumir’s “drug overdose site.”

Minister Dan Williams was responding to Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s comments on Tuesday, saying she hadn’t heard anything from the province since a city council motion to bounce a decision on the site back to the province.

The city and province have gone back and forth on the site, with neither wanting to take responsibility for closing the supervised consumption location.

“There was a point in time where Minister Williams called on the city to take action, and I reminded him that it’s his portfolio,” the mayor told reporters on Tuesday.

“In 2022 we were told that there would be a relocation to multiple locations, and that we would have enhanced servicing, that we would be able to take care of folks in a much broader way who are facing some complex challenges. I haven’t heard anything, so I do intend to follow up at some point, but it’s disappointing not to have action.”

In a video Minister Williams’ office sent to LWC before being posted to social media, the minister said that back in October he gave the city an outlet. At that time the province wanted a motion from Calgary city council to move ahead with the closure of the Chumir supervised consumption site.

He said they’ve given the same plan to Red Deer.

“In my letter to the mayor in October and all of city council, I said, ‘if you want to go down the same path that Red Deer has chosen by a vote of their council, I’m happy to partner with you and what that looks like,” the minister said in the video.

“What’s not on the table, as far as I’m concerned, are more drug and overdose sites across the city.”

Chumir not an ideal location: Chief of police

Calgary’s police Chief Mark Neufeld said back in January that the Sheldon Chumir site was an ongoing concern for police and that it wasn’t the right location.

Other experts, however, have said that it’s an ideal location, and the challenge is that there aren’t more sites spread around the city and that clientele is concentrated in one neighbourhood.

Minister Williams said the province’s policy has been around recovery. He said his position on the matter hasn’t changed.

“I believe that not only is recovery possible, but it’s probable, when you build the pathways of care, to get Albertans off the street, out of addiction, out of a life of crime, out of living in encampments intermittently in minus 40 weather, subject to drug cartels and the rules that they have in these lawless drug dens called encampments, and get them into recovery,” Minister Williams said.

“If the City of Calgary wants a partner, my position stands, my offer and the olive branch is still there.”

When asked if the issue hadn’t been dealt with because the province had other issues on the go, Mayor Gondek said you have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

“You can’t put it aside because you’re busy doing other things,” she said.

“If your portfolio is mental health and addictions, this is a very big issue for our city, so I would hope that people can manage multiple things.”

Williams said that he once again requests a motion from Calgary city council.

“Instead of abstaining or looking to bear their head in the stand and say it’s not their responsibility, it is your responsibility to give this province feedback if you want to see a path out of the drug overdose center,” he said.

“What I won’t partner with is throwing barbs at me and this government for taking a positive recovery approach when we see the city whose responsibility is zoning, whose responsibility is public safety, whose responsibility is the economic welfare and future of their downtown and beltline core, just being ignored.”

• With files from Aryn Toombs