Juno News - January 26, 2025


Treatment over ＂safe supply＂ is paying off for Alberta


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

173.01291

Word Count

2,287

Sentence Count

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 hey everyone and now i am joined by alberta's mental health and addictions minister
00:00:21.040 dan williams as you guys know i've covered alberta is what's called alberta's recovery
00:00:26.240 oriented system of care they've really been prioritizing treatment over safe supply like
00:00:31.360 we're seeing in other provinces like our neighbor to the west of us over in bc and they've been
00:00:37.040 pretty roundly criticized for this approach but it looks like it is finally paying off with some
00:00:43.280 of the numbers that are coming out of the province minister williams thank you so much for being us
00:00:47.760 with us here today i'm just gonna let you really dive into it what are the latest that we're seeing
00:00:53.280 in numbers on the ground resulting from alberta's approach yeah thanks rachel the numbers are
00:01:00.240 becoming more and more clear we've seen a year over year drop from 2023 to 2024 of 38 decrease in
00:01:08.080 opioid fatalities now this is huge news not least of which because these are lives saved albertans
00:01:13.920 family members community members of ours that we know now are are being helped many of them getting
00:01:20.160 access to recovery in alberta which wasn't possible before the united conservatives came in because
00:01:25.360 no one was building addiction treatment spaces it's still not possible in jurisdictions next door like
00:01:31.040 you mentioned in british columbia which is focused on what's known as a harm reduction model and makes
00:01:36.640 itself manifest in unsafe supply in drug consumption sites on every street corner and public and safety
00:01:45.280 and all of that compiles into seeing the same kind of numbers you see across the rest of canada and the
00:01:51.280 united states it's approximately an eight percent decrease in the in british columbia when it comes
00:01:56.880 to opioid fatality reduction which is what everywhere is seen because post-covid we're seeing that drop
00:02:03.040 we're four times higher drop in alberta i'm very very optimistic cautiously so that we're going to continue to see
00:02:10.960 this system prove itself in the evidence in the data it's becoming abundantly clear that harm reduction
00:02:17.280 has become harm production under programs like unsafe supply and then it's their alberta recovery
00:02:23.200 model that is about dignity and hope and health care for those suffering from addiction that is actually
00:02:28.960 leading the way and getting real results and you see it you see it in your communities you see it when you look for
00:02:34.560 people who are trying to get access to treatment and increasingly we're seeing it in the data
00:02:39.280 now i know that the united conservative party government has made pretty significant
00:02:43.760 investments in this model i think when i last covered this it was a while ago there was something
00:02:48.880 like 11 centers being built in total could you give us an update on how many centers your government
00:02:55.120 has actually built so we have a center built in red deer in lethbridge and in gun alberta which is on
00:03:01.920 laxane and just outside of edmonton we have more facilities opening up this year another
00:03:08.160 three more opening up four more opening up this year and we're partnering with indigenous community
00:03:13.440 we're gonna have a total of 11 recovery communities and on top of that i also know that we need to
00:03:19.680 care for those suffering from addiction and there are a number of people who suffer in the worst
00:03:25.280 throes of addiction trapped imprisoned by the addiction they're the individuals that you see on the
00:03:31.360 street in jasper avenue or steven avenue or in towns like i'm from peace river increasingly in our rural
00:03:37.680 communities that are intermittently homeless that have lost personal agency that some of them because
00:03:44.880 they're speedballing method phenamine along with fentanyl are fencing with the wind with a youth syringe
00:03:50.480 out front of the rec center as mom and kids are trying to get in there's nothing compassionate about
00:03:55.280 leaving those individuals to stay intimately homeless to risk overdose we had one individual that
00:04:02.240 overdosed 186 times that we know of with our provincial health care records 186 time overdose each one of
00:04:09.840 those overdoses is one breath away from death there's nothing compassionate about leaving our family
00:04:15.040 members and friends in that state so we're going to be introducing the compassionate intervention
00:04:19.520 legislation where if you're a danger to yourself or others like that 186 time overdoser
00:04:25.440 we don't want that 187th time to end up in death and so what we're going to do is intervene and
00:04:31.920 potentially if we meet the very high standard then there will be a mandatory treatment order that
00:04:36.880 could come out of that to help that individual suffering from addiction where everything has been
00:04:41.600 offered to get that person help in health care but then also to restore safety to the community so that
00:04:47.920 the people fencing with the wind with the youth syringe risking public insecurity to family members
00:04:53.840 to school groups to those that we love and care for that ride public transit to return that back to
00:04:59.680 the city back to albertans obviously we're just coming off the heels of the covet 19 pandemic and i know
00:05:06.000 that a number of albertans still have concerns about the vaccine coercion that we saw during that era
00:05:12.240 what would your response be to those albertans who are unsettled by the sort of mandatory treatment
00:05:19.200 that your government is is looking to pass through legislation i say it's a legitimate concern to
00:05:25.840 be um thoughtful and and to react if there is an overreach of government i was very concerned about
00:05:32.560 overreach of government in the past um and and i think that's legitimate um but i'll say we're putting our
00:05:38.720 money where our mouth is we passed the alberta bill of human rights amendment to make sure the alberta
00:05:43.760 bill of rights amendment to make sure that it's protected in alberta law when it comes to civil
00:05:50.000 liberties and personal liberties this is not about overreach this is about returning your communities
00:05:56.560 to albertans this is about helping those for an addiction i can tell you now rachel if it was your
00:06:02.480 daughter or my son that was suffering from addiction and everything had been tried and
00:06:08.240 and your daughter or my son was overdosing 186 times we would want society to be able to intervene
00:06:15.760 compassionately to intervene with that with a response that brings someone into healing again
00:06:21.200 bring them into an opportunity of recovery every albertan deserves an opportunity of recovery if
00:06:25.280 they're in addiction and if it's your daughter or my son we know that addiction run its course given
00:06:30.800 enough time tragically it ends in only one of two ways it ends in pain misery and with enough of a
00:06:37.520 runway it ends in death or the alternative is it ends in some sort of intervention treatment recovery
00:06:45.760 and a second lease on life that's what i want to see for my family members and friends and loved ones
00:06:51.120 and every alberta citizen that is struggling if every other opportunity has been extended to them
00:06:56.240 and their danger in some way to cause harm to themselves or others then yes yes that's the
00:07:01.440 conservative thoughtful compassionate canadian and albertan approach is to care for them you were
00:07:08.400 in washington in september to talk about the alberta model i'm wondering if there are states that are
00:07:14.960 looking at alberta and hoping to mimic the recovery oriented system of care that we have here
00:07:20.240 it's pretty interesting we're seeing a lot of interest across the united states i myself am going
00:07:27.280 to washington in about two weeks for the national prayer breakfast and we're having meetings as well
00:07:33.520 with officials to talk about the alberta model with this incoming republican administration about how
00:07:40.800 we can share our best practices in alberta with a recovery oriented system of care with that alberta
00:07:45.840 recovery model with them and also we've had massachusetts and connecticut very interested we've
00:07:51.280 had other states and state legislators in the midwest and in the southwest interested in what alberta's
00:07:58.000 doing the pandemic of of addiction opioid overdose that we see across canada and inner cities it's
00:08:06.880 happening in the united states as well now we had a federal government that poured jet fuel to create
00:08:12.640 a dumpster fire when they put unsafe supply on the streets dumping 100 million pills of hydromorphone
00:08:20.240 five times more powerful than heroin unwitnessed into the supply of opioids and we've had horrible
00:08:26.400 policy where they think drug consumption sites on every street corner is going to solve an addiction
00:08:30.960 crisis without any prevention early intervention and no attempt at recovery of course that's going to
00:08:36.640 make it worse in canada the united states also faces the fundamentally the same problem around
00:08:42.480 lots lots of supply of high-powered opioids like fentanyl and lots and lots of demand created by a
00:08:49.360 reckless pharmaceutical industry that pushed on unsuspecting canadians and americans a pernicious
00:08:56.800 and incredibly cynical plot for profit to have millions upon millions of our citizens addicted to the
00:09:04.240 deadliest drugs on the planet and so they have that same same fundamental setting that drove us to this
00:09:11.360 crisis in united states as canada thankfully their governments have not um had the same kind of
00:09:17.440 response the trudeau liberals have had where they've made it even worse but the problem's still there so
00:09:22.560 they're very interested in what elbert is doing because in some ways we're further down the line
00:09:26.560 than they are in terms of having to come up with a response because our our crisis is more mature than
00:09:31.520 theirs is uh when you talk about this trip to washington it will come obviously in the midst of a looming
00:09:37.680 trade war at the at the time you'll be in washington you know it's likely that we'll see those 25 percent
00:09:42.400 tariffs that are currently set to take effect on february 1st obviously alberta premier danielle smith
00:09:48.320 has really been leveraging herself and trying to build relationships with her american counterparts
00:09:53.680 in hopes of securing a deal for you know all of canada if not at least alberta do you think that
00:09:59.920 you know your endeavor down to washington and you're um you know speaking with counterparts there
00:10:05.840 are you hoping to leverage that at all to build those relationships and potentially solidify
00:10:10.400 an exemption for you know alberta as these tariffs come into place or are you not focused on that at
00:10:15.520 this time absolutely i want to build relationships and i'm incredibly proud of the work premier smith
00:10:20.560 has done in trying to find a de-escalation and a common solution to our largest trading partner to
00:10:25.840 the south i'm an incredibly proud canadian i'd like to see this this solved without any kind of
00:10:31.840 tariffs put on either side i think that's the net benefit to all of us to show stronger in north
00:10:36.880 america with two independent countries side by side but i'd also like to see a federal government
00:10:43.120 that doesn't doesn't make this unity crisis worse they have no legitimacy and they're telling us in
00:10:48.960 alberta what we need to do with our resources i think that the hypocrisy and the condescension coming
00:10:55.280 from the trudeau liberals is outrageous accusing us of being un-canadian effectively saying that we're
00:11:00.560 unpatriotic because we want to see a de-escalation of a potential trade war with the world's largest
00:11:06.240 economic superpower and our largest trading partner where have they been for the last decade calling
00:11:12.000 us un-canadian not on team canada they've been destroying canada in every opportunity they could
00:11:17.520 leaving our flags at half mass for a year attacking johnny mcdonald and his legacy who founded
00:11:24.560 this country tearing down his statues putting them under boxes for five years on end they've done
00:11:30.400 everything they can including trudeau saying we're a post-national state well the culture they set
00:11:34.960 in auto has consequences unfortunately they can't turn on a dime and say that we've been un-canadian when
00:11:40.000 they're the ones that seem to hate the very country that has given them all the benefits and prosperity
00:11:45.120 that we inherit today so no i'm a proud canadian i don't think the problem is with alberta here
00:11:51.120 i think we're doing the right job trying to build relationships in washington i'll continue to do so
00:11:56.160 i'm incredibly ashamed of a federal government that tries to pit alberta and province against
00:12:01.600 province that tries to condescend and take advantage of the very resources that they're
00:12:05.920 trying to shut down when it's convenient for them to do so all of a sudden it's canadian oil or canadian
00:12:11.120 energy rather than alberta oil it's no longer dirty but an important part of our trade negotiations
00:12:16.880 i can tell you just as my position as an albertan nothing else i'm a proud canadian but incredibly
00:12:22.240 disappointed at the cynical approach of the true liberal cabinet i've had enough eastern politicians
00:12:27.040 dictating to us what we need to do with our oil whether it's keep it in the ground or use it to
00:12:31.760 cause trade wars that make all of us poorer minister thank you so much thank you rachel all right
00:12:38.320 everyone that is all we have time for today i hope that you enjoyed those interviews uh thought it was
00:12:44.400 worthwhile to do an update on the alberta recovery model because i've covered that story a lot over my
00:12:49.280 career and you guys know that i'm really fascinated by the trade war with the united states it was so
00:12:54.400 great to have a perspective from someone who has those contacts in washington and who was on the
00:12:58.880 ground for the inauguration hope that you guys have a great rest of your week god bless