Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis said the site, housed in the Sheldon M. Chumir Centre in Calgary -- as well as a mobile overdose prevention service in Lethbridge -- will be shuttered as the next step in Alberta's move to a recovery-oriented approach to addiction.

Ellis said funding for the two sites would be transitioned into different support services, including those that steer people into treatment.

"People will not be left without support," he told reporters in Calgary.

Both are slated to close at the end of June.

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

The new closures mean three supervised consumption sites remain in Alberta: two in Edmonton and a mobile site in Grande Prairie.

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

Ellis and Addictions Minister Rick Wilson said supervised consumption sites were always meant to be a temporary response to the opioid crisis.

"Drug consumption services were introduced during a very different time," Wilson said.

Alberta now wants to provide people with other paths, he added.

"People need more than survival. They need hope," said Wilson.

"That's not about walking away from some of our most vulnerable people. It's about doing better by them and using our health system more effectively."

Wilson said the government doesn't currently have plans to close the remaining sites, especially the two in Edmonton.

Additional treatment services and recovery facilities aren't where they would need to be in the capital city in order to close down the sites, he said.

"We'll get to them, but we've got some more work to do first."

The site in Calgary has long been a political football.

Former premier Jason Kenney tried to close it in 2022 but didn't follow through. In 2025, the province, under Premier Danielle Smith, got into a spat with former Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek about its future.

Smith's government had said it was up to city council to tell the province whether it wanted the site shut down. Gondek said it wasn't council's jurisdiction, and later accused the province of dragging its heels in developing a plan to increase other services if the Chumir site was to close.

Late last year, the province announced it would be closing the site and replacing it with a treatment program. Calgary's new mayor, Jeromy Farkas, said last week that he's eager to work with the province to make the transition.

The Red Deer site's closure is the focus of an ongoing legal battle, as well as a recent study by a provincial Crown corporation.

The study by the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence suggests the closure didn't lead to increased overdose deaths or emergency department visits.

In a news release announcing the study earlier this month, the Crown corporation called it "landmark" evidence, though its authors wrote that the research was inconclusive as it only covered a six-month time period.

Wilson touted the report on Friday, calling it a tool he can use to make decisions.

"I try to base all my decisions on research and evidence-based (studies)," he said. "To have that study now, that gives us one more tool to look at as to how we move forward."

The study relied on individual health information from Alberta Health Services that can't be shared publicly or with other researchers.

The ongoing legal case is attempting to challenge the government's decision to close the Red Deer site as a violation of Charter rights.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2026.

-- With files from Jack Farrell in Edmonton