The Calgary Firefighters Association is urging the different levels of government to come together on a solution, as overdose call response has spiked compared to 2025.

On Tuesday, the association said that in the first seven months of 2026 (Jan. 1 to July 31) they’d responded to 5,941 overdose calls. That represents a 143 per cent increase over the 2,440 calls they dealt with in the same period of 2025.

Calls have been concentrated in Wards 7 and 8, according to Calgary Firefighters Association president, Jamie Blayney.

“Simply put, that’s more than 35 overdose calls a day in July, many of which involved firefighters using Naloxone to save a life,” Blayney said.

“These calls take up an immense amount of resources, staff time and mental capacity as our crews frantically try to reverse an overdose and save a life.”

Blayney said that the city’s growth coupled with an increase in the drug supply is pushing the increase in calls to an unsustainable level.

“It is certainly putting a strain on resources, but we’re also asking, hopefully, for all levels of government to get involved in this problem and provide some relief for our members who are just attending an unsustainable amount of calls,” he said.

Blayney spoke with media outside the Central Calgary Public Library (CPL) on Tuesday and within metres of the scrum, peace officers were handling a drug situation on the bench outside.

For its part, the CPL told LWC that their security costs have risen roughly 90 per cent since 2019. They typically have a security detail of 11 guards working at various points in the day. The library also adds two seasonal guards to the library exterior during warmer months.

Recently, however, they’ve had to add three more guards “as concerns about behaviours around the exterior of our building increased,” according to Barb Gillard, executive director of visitor experience.

Gillard said the security cost increase has been supported by the Civic Partner Community Safety Grant from the City of Calgary.

“Along with additional security presence, this grant has allowed us to take a multi-pronged approach to activating our exterior and create a safer space,” Gillard said.

“This includes regular exterior programming, additional staff positions, additional training for staff, and improved monitoring capabilities.”

Both problematic and expensive: Coun. Atkinson

Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson said that not enough is being done to get a grip on the ongoing problem with social disorder and drug use in the core.

“This is hugely problematic, extremely expensive.

“We’re applying a ton of emergency response to dealing with this, and we’re getting terrible outcomes. We’re having people die because the drug supply is just getting worse and worse and worse.”

Atkinson said that the city can only help through areas under its control.

“We help with the things where we can in terms of housing, but when it comes to mental health, addiction supports, all of that lives with the province,” he said.

“And unfortunately, the choices they’ve been making — things like closing down the (Sheldon) Chumir without having a plan in place for what we’re transitioning to next — it’s not leading to good outcomes for the city.”

The Calgary police have had multiple downtown safety operations consuming dozens of resources to help deal with social disorder and to connect people with the appropriate care.

Though the safety sweeps in the downtown core have been ongoing, Blayney said that their overdose call response has stayed steady throughout.

“You might see little blips along the way, but when you look at statistics year over year, and in July alone, I think we were 1,100 plus calls,” he said.  

“It’s certainly a sustained increase that you know we’re seeing year over year.”

The added calls not only put strain on the firefighters, but it impacts the CFD’s ability to respond to other lifesaving events, Blayney said. He said once an overdose first response is required, they often have to draw resources from other districts to respond to regular calls.

“It increases the amount of response (time), which again, in medical, whether it’s a fire, whether it’s an MVC (motor vehicle collision, seconds matter, and we’re just stretching resources thinner and thinner,” he said.

The City of Calgary tracks fire response to overdose calls on a separate dashboard here.