Ottawa gives Alberta $12-million to address increase in sexually transmitted infections

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Ottawa is providing millions of dollars in funding to community organizations in Alberta to address an increase in sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections.

Carolyn Bennett, federal Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, said the $12-million in funding will support 14 projects aimed at reducing systemic barriers to treatment, especially among the LGBTQ+ and Indigenous communities that are disproportionately affected by infections such as HIV and hepatitis C.

In Alberta, HIV cases increased by 17.2 per cent last year when compared with 2021. There was also a 19.4-per-cent climb in chlamydia and 2.4-per-cent jump for infectious syphilis over the same period, according to a government report.

These infections are preventable, treatable and often curable, but Ms. Bennett said stigma remains an obstacle to people accessing health services.

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“We have a moral obligation to prevent the preventable,” she said during the announcement on Monday in Edmonton. “It means reducing those barriers to prevention, to testing, to treatment and to support but also to take into consideration the implications of the [infections] on both the physical and mental health.”

The funding includes $1.5-million for three projects dedicated to reducing infection rates among individuals who share injection and inhalation drug-use equipment, such as needles or pipes. The other projects more broadly support groups at greater risk of being affected by STIs and other blood-borne infections.

The Queer and Trans Health Collective in Edmonton is receiving money for its project, the Peer N Peer Harm Reduction Program, which is led by community members, many of whom have experience with substance use and STIs. The organization provides counselling, education and disease prevention and mitigation supplies such as self-testing kits for HIV.

The collective’s executive director, Lea DuCoeur, said many members of the LGBTQ+ community have faced discrimination from health care providers, which prevents them from seeking medical help despite being at a heightened risk of infection.

“We have clients who have said that they are reluctant or delay getting tested for STIs because they know that they’re about equally likely to be shamed for their sexuality as they are to receive a shot of penicillin,” said Ms. DuCoeur.

She said funding will also be used to administer the organization’s leadership program, where members of the queer and transgender community can conduct self-directed research projects. She said this program empowers people who are often left out of discussions on their own health.

Ms. Bennett also faced a number of questions at the announcement on the drug toxicity crisis. Earlier on Monday, the Confederacy of Treaty No. 6 Nations, which spans Alberta and Saskatchewan, declared a state of emergency in response to the opioid crisis, calling on all levels of government for additional funding.

“Families, friends, and loved ones are being lost to this devastating crisis,” said Grand Chief Leonard Standingontheroad in a statement. “If harm reduction isn’t available, our people will die. The Confederacy of Treaty No. 6 Nations is asking the federal government to intervene and offer more effective, flexible and long-lasting support.”

He said the rise in mortality rates because of drug overdoses is seven times higher among Indigenous people in Alberta compared with non-Indigenous people. Chief Standingontheroad said death rates have spiked since the provincial government limited access to supervised drug consumption sites and said recovery spaces promised to First Nations are, in most cases, non-existent or inaccessible.

Ms. Bennett said Ottawa will “respond positively” to the request for assistance. She said her concern is that harm reduction has been pitted against recovery when both types of support are necessary to address the crisis. In Alberta, the government has focused on treatment and recovery services.

“This is a crisis as the Grand Chief said and we have to put the ideology away, look to the evidence and work together on what works,” Ms. Bennett said. “This is a matter of us listening to Treaty 6 and seeing what they need.”