EDMONTON — The Alberta government has ended its funding agreement with a supervised drug consumption site in Lethbridge after an audit showed financial irregularities.
Officials said in a news release that the independent accounting firm Deloitte did a grant expenditure audit on ARCHES, a non-profit agency overseeing the site.
The Deloitte report, released Thursday by the government, found $1.6 million that was unaccounted for; another $13,000 used for parties, staff retreats and gift cards; and thousands of dollars in travel expenses — including $4,301 for a manager to attend a conference in Portugal.
The province declined an interview request, but the news release said the organization seriously mismanaged some of the $14.4 million it received from the province in the last two years.
"It is disturbing and extremely disappointing to me that taxpayer funds allocated to this organization in order to serve the most vulnerable in Lethbridge would be used for European conferences, expenses for retreats, entertainment and gift cards," Jason Luan, associate minister of mental health and addictions, said in the release.
"Our government will not stand idly by while millions in taxpayer funds are missing or misappropriated."
ARCHES said in a statement that its board has been co-operating fully with the government and the forensic auditor.
"The board initiated its own internal organizational review in May 2020 by hiring a third-party consultant to begin the work that has led to important change in a short period of time," said the statement.
It said the agency woke up to the news and had yet to see the full report.
"The ARCHES board of directors understands that clients, staff, and community members will have a lot of questions and very real concerns," said the statement. "We have concerns, too."
The statement added that the board would hold a news conference soon.
Elaine Hyshka, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health, said her immediate concern is for the people using the site.
"I am really worried what will happen to them with the closure of ARCHES," she said.
A quarterly surveillance report from Alberta Health showed there were 439 unique clients who made more than 60,000 visits to the Lethbridge site in the first three months of this year.
"There is a huge unmet need for services," said Hyshka.
The government said it has asked Alberta Health Services to set up a temporary mobile overdose prevention site in Lethbridge to help those clients.
Hyshka said mobile services are designed to serve smaller numbers of people.
"That's certainly not the case in Lethbridge."
Hyshka questioned why the province doesn't have another provider step in similar to what it did for a homeless shelter in Lethbridge in April.
"I'm curious as to why that solution wasn't used in this case," she said. "This is a life-and-death issue, so why not have another organization take over?"
A spokeswoman for Alberta Health said there have been roughly 130 client visits per day to the Lethbridge site since March.
"Based on that utilization, we expect that the overdose prevention site ... will be able to match the capacity," said Kassandra Kitz in an email.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2020
Colette Derworiz, The Canadian Press
