Case backlog at Alberta medical examiner's office spurs call to regulate drug supply

Staffing shortage at medical examiner A staff shortage at the medical examiner's office in Alberta is causing delays in death investigations. Chelan Skulski reports.

Harm reduction advocate Petra Schulz says she isn't surprised to learn of backlogs in Alberta's chief medical examiner's office.

According to the 2023 annual justice report, the Office of Alberta's Chief Medical Examiner had a target last year to complete 20 per cent of cases within 60 days. It did so in three per cent of cases.

"Some families have been waiting a year and don't know how their loved one died," Schulz, co-founder of Moms Stop The Harm, told CTV News Edmonton.

On average, death investigations are taking nine months to complete. Investigations that require more time are considered backlogged. In 2023, there were more than 1,400 cases, nearly four times more than in 2022.

Schulz says too many families are left waiting too long.

"It just keeps people suspended even longer in that devastating grief they are already feeling," she said.

"I think it’s cruel and immoral to put families through that."

One of the leading causes of death in Alberta is drug poisoning — 2023 was a record-breaking year for drug-related deaths, with more than 2,000 people dying.

"There are no policies in place that are actually going to address the unregulated drug supply," said Euan Thomson of Drug Data Decoded, a publication that examines drug policy and its effects.

"Until we do that, we can't control how many people die from one month to the next, and that's the biggest problem right now."

Thomson told CTV News Edmonton he wants to see the province invest more money in supervised consumption sites and safe-supply prescribing.

"I would like to see some data supporting the government's $300 million-a-year investment into residential treatment programs that have no evidence they're going to reduce death," he said.

Alberta's justice minister says work is underway to reduce delays in death investigations. The province is hiring two full-time toxicology technologists along with six more staff members. The office's target for 2025 is to complete 60 per cent of cases within 60 days.

A spokesperson for Alberta's health and addictions minister didn't respond to concerns about a lack of harm reduction supports being offered, instead pointing to a decrease in deaths in March this year compared to last April. However, without a full year of data, it is not possible to say drug deaths will be down in 2024.