ID requirements at Alberta supervised consumption sites delayed, advocates say

Supervised consumption site staff won't have to ask clients to show identification until the new year, the Alberta government says.

A new licensing requirement for the sites to collect health-card information from clients is one of several new provincial rules that were set to take effect Sept. 30.

It's a contentious move that critics say will deter substance users from going to the sites and could increase overdose deaths.

"Alberta's in the midst of an unprecedented opioid overdose crisis and one of the major barriers for folks accessing care, accessing supervised consumption sites, is if they'll be outed or revealed as a substance user," Edmonton lawyer Avnish Nanda said Tuesday. He represents two organizations that are taking the provincial government to court in a bid to stop the new licensing requirements.

Nanda says he learned from the government last week that supervised consumption sites wouldn't be required to ask for ID until Jan. 3, 2022.

In an email, an acting press secretary for Mike Ellis, the associate minister of addictions and mental health, said a later date for requiring ID has always been the case. Eric Engler said the new standards will improve community safety and the quality of services.

He said some supervised consumption sites (SCS) need more time to prepare to become authorized "custodians" of personal health information.

But Tricia Smith, executive director of Edmonton's Boyle McCauley Health Centre, which runs an SCS, said the first formal word she received of a time extension was Tuesday afternoon. Her organization was preparing to begin checking health cards on Sept. 30.

New licensing requirements 

Although SCS services are authorized by the federal government, the Alberta government in June introduced a new set of standards the services must meet to be licensed to operate in the province. Existing sites had 120 days to adapt, and new sites must immediately meet the new standards.

SCS staff must refer clients to treatment and recovery services, and track the outcome of those referrals. Leaders must broker yearly "good neighbour" agreements with surrounding residents and businesses. Among new bureaucratic requirements is the collection of personal health numbers.

A 2016 study from University of Alberta researchers found only a third of substance users would be willing to attend an SCS where they had to show identification.

Opioid overdose numbers began to soar in the province after the COVID-19 pandemic reached Alberta in March 2020. Last year, a record 1,154 people died of opioid poisoning in the province, according to Alberta Health data. Between January and May 2021, 576 people died.

The incoming identification requirements have prompted advocates to fear more people will use alone, leaving them more vulnerable to dying of an overdose.

Kym Porter works with Moms Stop the Harm, which is one of two groups suing the government. Her son Neil died at age 31 from fentanyl poisoning five years ago in Medicine Hat.

Porter said people have many reasons for staying anonymous while using an SCS: they may fear their name will be passed on to the police. They could fear deportation. Some worry about stigma from other health-care workers who might see their health records. Others see jobs at risk.

"In conversation with people who are using sites currently, they've said they would no longer use those sites," she said.

Smith said the health information they collect will be entered into an internal electronic record, unavailable to people outside the organization.

Smith said the government said they won't have to turn away any clients to refuse to, or can't, provide a health card. However, she is concerned about potential consequences for the organization, should a large proportion of clients refuse to share that information.