Article content

Amid a growing opioid crisis, Mayor Naheed Nenshi has spoken to Canada’s health minister about using Calgary as a “test bed for new treatment modalities,” which could include safe consumption sites for drug users.

When he met with federal Health Minister Jane Philpott in Calgary last month, Nenshi offered the city as a place to test new ways of treating fentanyl and other powerful and often deadly opioids ravaging lives across the country.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or 'We've got a crisis': Nenshi pitches Calgary to feds as 'test bed' for fighting opioid crisis Back to video

“We’ve got a crisis . . . People are dying and we have to figure out ways of helping them and, certainly, the current system has not proven itself adequate toward dealing with this crisis,” Nenshi said Thursday.

“I’m looking for innovation, I’m looking for evidence and I’m willing to experiment and (do) pilot projects here in Calgary to try to find things that work. The situation is desperate and we have to do something about it.”

Nenshi spoke of the test bed idea at a committee meeting Thursday morning, in which he told councillors if there’s any appetite from Ottawa to move forward, important decisions will loom.