Safeworks no longer providing needles, pipes to Calgary partner agencies

Calgary harm-reduction workers say they've been cut off from the supplies they need to keep people safe.

Grassroots harm-reduction teams in Calgary say the province’s health restructuring has halted their access to free needles, pipes and other supplies that help keep drug users safe.

CTV News has obtained a letter sent by Safeworks to partner agencies on Sept. 12, informing them that funding for its Satellite Site Program would no longer cover the cost of harm-reduction materials.

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The letter states that any orders submitted after Oct. 1 will not be processed.

“We understand this change may have a significant impact, and we want to ensure you have the necessary information moving forward,” the letter reads.

Safeworks, which previously operated under Alberta Health Services, now falls under Recovery Alberta, following the province’s overhaul of the health-care system.

The grant that pays for its community work is administered through another new agency, Primary Care Alberta.

In a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson for Alberta’s Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services denied that the program referenced in the Safeworks email even existed, and said grants to Primary Care Alberta have not been reduced.

“There is no program called the ‘Safeworks Satellite Site program,’” said the statement. “Primary and Preventative Health Services provides a bulk supply grant to Primary Care Alberta, which administers the provincial program distributing harm-reduction supplies to registered sites across Alberta.”

“There has been no reduction or other change to the grant, which is $7.5 million over three years; it is up to each funded agency to determine how to use the funds.”

Under the provincial government’s health-care restructuring, meant to streamline care, Primary and Preventative Health Services provides the funding to Primary Care Alberta, which in turn funds Recovery Alberta.

The Safeworks site in Calgary is operated under Recovery Alberta.

In an email clarifying the statement, a spokesperson for Recovery Alberta told CTV:

"It is Recovery Alberta’s understanding that PPHS funding has not changed and was provided as a three-year grant.

There are no plans to provide additional funding for these supplies.”

The spokesperson added:

The email to “partner agencies” is an internal document, it was not intended for public use.

“The ‘Safeworks Satellite Site program’ is not the official name of any provincially funded initiative.“

The statement said Safeworks is an umbrella name used by Recovery Alberta for several local harm reduction services and that the term ‘satellite site program’ was used informally by staff to describe the “community distribution of harm reduction supplies.“

Street Cats YYC, a volunteer-run outreach group that operates late at night in downtown Calgary, says being unable to access harm-reduction supplies through Safeworks has been devastating.

“We hand out things like biohazard bins for used supplies, we hand out needles, pipes, pretty much any kind of supplies someone might need to consume drugs,” said Cecilia Fraser, one of the group’s organizers.

“There is plenty of research over decades and decades to show that this sort of approach not only helps to keep people alive, but it also reduces downstream medical costs. It’s a pretty simple solution if you ask me.”

Fraser said the end of the supply program “feels like the government doesn’t want people to do well or even survive.”

“People are already dying,” she said. “We always say in Street Cats that we’re just putting band-aids over bullet wounds — and when we’re out there desperately trying to do that, what’s going to happen when there’s not resources for people like us?”

She worries the loss of clean needles and pipes will lead to more hepatitis C and HIV infections and believes the move could be a prelude to closing Calgary’s supervised consumption site altogether.

“The downstream effects of that are all the negative things people think that site created,” she said. “Which are things like public drug use disorder, especially open-air drug use.”

On Calgary’s streets, drug users say the harm-reduction supplies are more than just sterile equipment — they’re a connection point.

“It’s important,” said Clifford Abraham, who uses methamphetamine and fentanyl. “People out there don’t just give out pipes either. They give us pamphlets on treatment centres and what’s going on in the city. It’s just nice to know someone’s actually out there that cares.”

Abraham said newcomers to drug use will be most at risk.

“I can see a big loss for the community,” he said.

Another Calgarian, Erica, said having her own clean pipe can mean the difference between staying healthy and ending up sick.

“If I couldn’t get a clean pipe, I’d just torch it and rinse it with water,” she said. “I’ve gotten really sick from not being able to stay in my own bubble. It’s so helpful when somebody brings clean stuff — it’s like a really sincere kind of help.”

The province has not clarified whether alternate programs will replace the Safeworks distribution.

Fraser said without one, the consequences will be immediate.

“All we can keep doing is taking care of each other,” she said.

CTV News has reached out to the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction.

This story will be updated when a response is received.