Danielle Smith’s top aide and drug strategy architect to depart

Premier Danielle Smith is losing the chief of staff who’s been at her side as long as she’s been premier — though in Marshall Smith, she’s also losing the architect of her government’s drug addictions strategy.

While a premier’s chief of staff is typically a quiet, behind-the-scenes gatekeeper and adviser, this one enjoyed a more public and out-front role promoting the provincial government’s drug addictions strategy — something he and the premier believed in so much that they branded it “the Alberta model” and have tried to spread it to other provinces and beyond.

“I look forward to continuing to work with Marshall on the Alberta recovery model for mental health and addictions and hope he has the opportunity to assist other governments across the country in building that model in their provinces,” the premier said on social media.

The 52-year-old aide bills it as “retiring,” but he also says he will pursue contract work and consulting on addiction care, potentially in other places like his native British Columbia.

It was there that Marshall Smith’s own life story inspired his approach.

Once a B.C. political staffer, he became addicted to cocaine and has said that led him to a life on the streets.

A 35-day residential program helped him get clean. After working in that field, he began proposing an expansive government investment into recovery facilities — a vision that drew interest from then-premier Jason Kenney in 2019.

Kenney lured Smith to Edmonton to become aide to various UCP ministers of mental health and addiction. Marshall Smith engineered the shift emphasis in Alberta’s addiction system away from harm reduction and safe consumption sites, and toward a network of several “recovery communities.”

As the government pours hundreds of millions of dollars into those residential complexes, they have downsized a busy safe consumption site in Lethbridge, are closing one entirely in Red Deer, replacing it with other support options.

It has proposed to do the same for Calgary’s lone overdose prevention site in the Beltline.

Critics have warned the province’s recovery model has been biased against harm reduction programs, and could lead to more fatal drug overdoses in the province, instead of fewer.

Monthly drug overdose deaths have surged since Marshall Smith arrived in the province in 2019, though the opioid crisis has raged throughout the country, both during and after the COVID pandemic.

But at points when Alberta’s drug fatalities have declined, such as recently, the United Conservative Party government has repeatedly said it’s “cautiously optimistic” that its strategy is working. 

Only three of the 11 recovery communities Marshall Smith has envisioned have opened so far. There is thus no indication at this time that his departure is a sign the UCP government’s addiction strategy will change.

Danielle Smith has expressed full faith in her aide’s approach. As chief of staff, Marshall Smith has overseen political staff in the Alberta government, and has led all social services policy for the premier’s office. That includes the division of Alberta Health Services into four separate agencies, including one for mental health and addiction called Recovery Alberta.

He’ll be replaced as chief of staff by Rob Anderson, a longtime strategist and confidant to Premier Smith. Anderson has been serving as executive director to the premier’s office — a previously unheard-of senior position that’s made him equal in status to Marshall Smith.

This change in the top ranks of the premier’s office comes before Premier Smith faces a leadership review at the United Conservative Party convention next month.

Marshall Smith’s recovery-focused approach has found support among fellow politicians, from federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

John Rustad, hoping to lead the B.C. Conservatives to victory in that province’s election this month, has promised to copy elements of Alberta’s approach if he becomes premier.