Alberta Compassionate Intervention Act—a significant and life-saving

Today Premier Smith, I am honored to present the Compassionate Intervention Act—a significant and life-saving initiative aimed at assisting individuals grappling with severe addiction.

We cannot permit those ensnared in the cycle of addiction to lose their lives on our streets simply because we are hesitant to take action.

When addiction poses a genuine threat to an individual's safety or the safety of others, it is imperative that we provide intervention and enforce mandatory treatment.

For far too long, individuals have endured the torment of addiction, inflicting harm upon themselves and those around them. We are committed to changing this narrative. With over 10,000 publicly funded treatment spaces, 11 recovery communities, and innovative programs, Alberta has established a premier recovery model grounded in the belief that recovery is achievable.

Video reporting:
- Well, good morning, everyone. What an amazing group we have here with us today. I think it's important to know who each of the people are behind me, maybe not the entire group of a folk service.

It would be your afternoon, but thank you all for being here. But we have a number of speakers who are going to be behind me as well today because addiction has touched each person.- Here in some way, parents whose children were taken, families who lost loved ones, and people in recovery have stories to tell about their own journey. To each of you, thank you so much for being here. I've been inspired by your courage to stand with us and to show your support. I'm also pleased to be joined by Albert as minister of mental health and addiction, Dan Williams, and Chief Cody Thomas.

Have you not?- Curry Nation and Doctor Robert Tanguay, interim senior medical lead of Compassionate Intervention for Recovery Alberta, who has an important role in today's announcement, and I want to give a special thank you to the mothers Susan Boon and You Know Watson, who will share their stories with us this morning. In the past ten years, over fifty thousand Canadian lives have been lost to drug overdoses.-

They are not just numbers; they are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, aunts, and uncles—people who have been consumed by a wretched and unforgiving disease, a disease that seeks to inflict as much suffering as possible on both those afflicted and their loved ones. Every person here today knows the suffering.all too well, as do the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have lost a loved one. We know that addiction is pain; it is a pain that no community has been able to escape.
In our downtown course, there are visible effects on every street with individuals who have lost the ability to make healthy decisions actively putting their lives at risk and causing fear and-harm the broader community and more and more Albertans as rural communities are seeing the effects of addiction
- Addiction is a daily anguish and heartache for family members, parents, and anyone watching a loved one be consumed by this awful disease. Right now, all of Canada is in the grip of this crisis, and we must do all we can to help all Burtons who have struggled with addiction. Since we first took office, mental health and addiction have been a top priority for our government.
- We found opportunities to expand treatment capacity, adding more than ten thousand new publicly funded mental health and addiction treatment spaces, which was a fifty-five percent increase in system capacity. We removed barriers to service, helping to take the financial burden off families by eliminating the forty dollars per day user fees for publicly

- Funded mental health and addiction treatment spacesand the covering the cost of the opioid agonist treatment
- Drugs sublocated We are building new facilities to support Albert, including eleven recovery communities, two compassionate intervention centres, three live-in youth mental health treatment facilities, and the Northern Alberta Youth Recovery Centre. We've also expanded the virtual opioid dependency program, a world-leading program for Albertans to- You access proven addiction treatment medications with no cost and no waitlist. I could go on, but I wanted to take a moment to extend my deepest thank you to all the organizations and Indigenous communities across the province that have partnered with us to develop the Alberta Recovery Model. The result of all of our work is a positive trend with last year.- Opioid-related fatalities are down thirty-seven percent from the year before. This reduction in fatalities is three times larger than what British Columbia recorded in the same timeframe. Despite this positive trend, too many of her friends and loved ones are still at risk of serious harm from their addiction or substance use. We know that this is- There's still more work to do. There's more to do for individuals whose addiction has become so severe that they're an imminent danger to themselves and others. There's more to do for families with a loved one on the streets driving every phone call and every knock on the door, and there's more to do to bring back social order and ensure our province has a safe place for every- Albert And to call home, we can't just sit back and wait for addiction to run its course and inflict its terrible toll on our communities. There is no compassion in leaving people to suffer in the throes of addiction, and we will not sacrifice our communities or give up on those suffering from addiction. Our government is one hundred percent committed to helping those struggling with addiction in their pursuit.-of recovery, and that's why we promised to tell Britain that we would bring forward compassionate intervention as a tool to save lives, and today we're delivering on that promise by introducing Bill Fifty-Three, the Compassionate Intervention Act. This piece of legislation has been under development for some time because we recognize how important it is to get it right.- The Compassionate Intervention Act recruits an opportunity for families, guardians, healthcare professionals, police, or peace officers to take action when someone's addiction or substance use has made them a danger to themselves or others.- And I do want to be clear: the Compassionate Intervention Act is not sweeping legislation that applies to every person who's dealing with addiction or substance use; it is only for the most serious cases where all other options have failed. It's important to remember that people in the clutches of addiction are unable to help themselves and sit- He is power of addiction, meaning the only thing that matters is their next high.- It isn't a lifestyle choice; it is a treatable illness, and to families with loved ones suffering from addiction, compassionate intervention offers new hope—hope that their loved ones can get the help that they need to break their addiction, connect with their families, and manage their lives and recovery. With compassionate intervention, we have an opportunity to bring people who are suffering.-ing out of that state and give them back control of their lives. Thank you, and I'd now like to invite Minister Dan Williams to share more details.-- Oh, good morning, everybody, and especially to those joining behind us today. Each one of these individuals represents a life that has been affected by addiction and a testament to what is possible. Covering and thank you, Premier, for losing our quenching important words. What is our commitment to bringing compassion for renshon?to the province of Alberta, of course. Thank you. I see moisture here today supporting us. An announcement: we have Susan and Janell, two mothers that will be speaking to you shortly about the effect addiction has had on their families. And she probably means Thomas Wu, who has been unwavering in his support for getting recovery to those who suffer and his community in a prosperous nation.
-runs all across the province, and Doctor Tango, of course, for the work he's done leading this province and, I think, this country in many ways when it comes to addiction treatment and the role he will have with us going forward with compassion intervention- I'm grateful to all of you for this participation today in the announcement. As we heard from the premier today, our government has tabled Bill Fifty-Three, the Compassionate Intervention Act. Since being appointed to the minister responsible for mental health and addiction, I've heard from so many over each. I've heard their stories and sat with someone finding their way back throughtreatment into recovery- But in spite of many of them being reunited with their families and getting their lives back, I've also heard of other more tragic stories with unhappy endings. My heart breaks for families grieving the loss of somebody who has suffered death from addiction, and of course, I stand with all those whose family members, parents, or siblings have somebody in addiction.- Right now, we want to get those family members, those loved committee members, into recovery and out of a life of despair and addiction, and that is why we're bringing forth the Compassionate Intervention Act. It is one more tool for a community to use when they have a loved one suffering from the deadly disease of addiction.- We have a thoughtful process, and if passed, it would establish in this act that there are several different aspects of the process, including the Compassion Intervention Commission and healthcare professionals. Police officers, peace officers, indigenous leaders, families, and others would play a role in the compassion intervention process with us as Dr. Rob Tango Elite.an expert in psychiatry and addiction medicine within the province and the country, and if the Compassion Dimensions Pack Intervention Act passes, Doctor Tango will support its implementation as the medical director. He's been appointed now as the interim senior medical lead for compassionate intervention and will work directly with Recovery Alberta to ensure treatment effectively brings peace.- Pulling out of addiction into recovery was news of hope for those family members who were suffering from addiction.

The process for compassion to direction will begin with an application, which can be submitted by a parent or guardian. a family member, healthcare professional, or police officer- Once that application is received and subject to the commission's decision, Britain could be given a care plan and required to spend up to three months in a secure treatment facility or up to six months in a community-based treatment facility.
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To be continued