Edmonton police to open ‘stabilization centre’ with Recovery Alberta to hold people in crisis
Posted May 21, 2026 12:37 pm.
Edmonton police and the Alberta government are planning to open a new space for people having a drug or mental-health crisis on city streets.
The space is being described as an integrated stabilization centre (ISC): a place to triage people who can’t take care of themselves – whether they want that help or not.
Intake is expected to begin this summer.
“So the stabilization concept for the stabilization centre is for us to really slow things down,” EPS Chief Warren Driechel said. “Take that – I don’t want to say out of the hands of our members and front-line workers – but allow us to take care and control of those individuals and then determine what are the next steps for them.”
Chief Driechel says sometimes officers don’t know where to take people in crisis in the middle of the night. And while people can be arrested for intoxication and brought to the police detention centre, the chief says that may not always be the best solution.
“We’re not here to criminalize someone, right, but they’re not being looked after,” he said. “So we can use some of those temporary holding powers to hold them. But the goal is now to connect them with services and work with Recovery Alberta.”
The Alberta government says people there can be detained under the Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis Act for up to 24 hours, or under the Mental Health Act for up to three or five days.
“If the patient continues to meet admission criteria under the Act and following stabilization, they will then be transferred to another designated facility better suited for providing long-term inpatient care,” Alberta’s Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction explained in a statement.
The province says the centre is designed to ensure “immediate safety, provide medical assessment and stabilization” while providing a path to treatment and recovery.
“The ISC brings clinical health professionals and public safety partners together to help vulnerable people in crisis while reducing pressures on emergency departments, EMS and frontline police resources,” according to the ministry’s statement. “It is designed to ensure their immediate safety, provide medical assessment and stabilization, and provide pathways to treatment, recovery and community-based services.”
The Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction says the ISC was originally announced in 2022 as a hybrid health and police hub.
The Edmonton Police Service and Alberta government describe the capital city as the “epicentre” of Alberta’s opioid crisis.
As a result, “the EPS must re-imagine its approach to addressing the related addiction, overdose and associated social disorder,” a spokesperson for the police force said in a statement.
‘Fear of arrest’
Advocate Petra Schulz is concerned by how long and why people will be detained, and where they will go when they’re released. Schulz is asking why solutions for people who are homeless or use drugs must involve incarceration.
“A person who uses drugs, whenever they have fear of arrest or fear of having to interact with law enforcement, their response is to hide – to hide themselves, to hide what they are doing, to hide that they are using.
“And when people use alone and then have a toxic drug event, when they overdose, they die.”
Changes to HELP and PACT teams
Changes are also coming to EPS’ HELP and PACT teams, which include social workers, because of changes to provincial grants. Chief Driechel says those programs will continue, with grants restructured to focus on compassionate care or focused intervention
“I often hear from the public, and I hear from our members and even within our organization, ‘these people don’t want help,’” said Driechel. “I would suggest they don’t know they need help at this time. So it starts to make us think differently about how do we be a little more intentional about what somebody needs and assist them to that next step.”
The Alberta government says there have been no changes to agreements for EPS and the HELP and PACT teams
“We are working closely with EPS to ensure members of these teams have the resources then need to connect vulnerable people to treatment and recovery-oriented supports, such as the VODP (Virtual Opioid Dependency Program), the Navigation Centre, and detox services,” the ministry said. “The new Integrated Stabilization Centre will be another tool that will be available to these teams as needed. The focus is on connecting more of the services together so more people get the care they need.”
