A new space for youth addiction recovery is opening at a north Edmonton jail.
On Tuesday, the Alberta government announced the $23-million 105-bed Northern Alberta Youth Recovery Centre.
The live-in facility, scheduled to open in two years, will have the capacity to treat 300 youth every year.
Alberta’s Opposition is questioning the location of the addiction recovery centre — beside the Edmonton Young Offender Centre.
“Coming into this morning, we had 70 beds in the entire province for youth dealing with substances,” said Alberta NDP MLA Janet Eremenko. “One hundred and five new beds is a good thing. There are some big questions about why here, and what else is done to support the youth ahead of time and after they come out of treatment centres.”
The province claims the prison and the recovery centre will be separate, even if they will be in the same space.
“This is not a correction facility,” said Dan Williams, the minister of mental health and addiction. “We made extensive renovations to make sure this is… a healing place. Other provinces don’t have a policy that heals, instead they have a policy facilitating addiction.”