Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says the Alberta government is dragging its heels on deciding the future of the city’s only supervised drug-use site.

In a letter to Premier Danielle Smith, Gondek says the province has not followed through on its promises and that its delay is causing “concern and distress.”

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The Alberta government under former premier Jason Kenney committed in 2022 to closing the Sheldon Chumir Supervised Consumption Site in Calgary’s Beltline neighbourhood and replacing it with two others.

But that site, which is also known as the Safeworks site, remains open.

Gondek is proposing that the city and province start formally working together to find an immediate solution.

The Safeworks site provides a hygienic environment for people to use drugs under medical supervision.

When asked about the mayor’s letter at the legislature on Thursday, Mental Health and Addiction Minister Dan Williams said he’d like to see “a different path forward: not one that facilitates addiction, (but) one that heals those in addiction.”

Williams said he offered an “olive branch” in a letter he wrote to the city in October.

“I wrote them a letter saying I’m not interested in seeing multiple drug overdose sites across the city,” he said. “I’m not interested in moving the site at the Sheldon Chumir to another community. I’m interested to see if the city wants to partner with me to transition out of drug consumption site services and into recovery-oriented services.”