Deputy Premier Mike Ellis providing an update on changes to drug consumption services in Alberta. (Image Credit: Government of Alberta-YouTube screenshot)

By Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press

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Alberta to shutter Calgary, Lethbridge supervised consumption sites

Mar 20, 2026 | 1:06 PM

The Alberta government is shutting down the province’s first-ever supervised drug consumption site.

Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis says the Sheldon M. Chumir Centre in Calgary, as well as a mobile service in Lethbridge, will be shuttered as the next step in the province’s move to a recovery-oriented approach to addiction. Both are slated to close at the end of June.

The Chumir Centre opened in 2017 in response to the ongoing opioid and overdose crisis, and six more sites opened in the following years across the province.

The closures mean just three supervised consumption sites will remain in Alberta, with two being in Edmonton. The other one is located in downtown Grande Prairie near Wapiti House.

Last year, the province closed a site housed within the Royal Alexandra Hospital just north of Edmonton’s downtown core, as well as a site in Red Deer.

WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHVwdA3JlGU

More coming.

(The Canadian Press)