Betty Nippi-Albright says a dispute over Bill 48 and the public release of information about forced addictions treatment was at the centre of her decision to leave the Saskatchewan NDP caucus.
Nippi-Albright, the MLA for Saskatoon Centre, announced Tuesday that she would sit as an independent. In a statement posted to social media, she said she could no longer support the direction of Carla Beck’s leadership and had not felt the support or respect needed to carry out her work “in a good way.”
During a media scrum at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building on Wednesday, Nippi Albright said her immediate concern was Bill 48, The Compassionate Intervention Act. She said an independent analysis she commissioned raised serious concerns about the legislation and should have been made public before the bill passed.
“Bill 48 will create serious harms for the most vulnerable people in our province,” Nippi-Albright said.
She said the analysis identified risks around expanded detention powers, a lack of safeguards, increased overdose risk, limited treatment capacity, and disproportionate impacts on Indigenous and racialized communities.
“People deserve to know what they are being asked to accept in Bill 48,” she said. “Evidence should never be withheld because it is convenient.”
The provincial government announced Tuesday that Bill 48 had passed. The legislation allows for involuntary addiction treatment in cases involving people with severe addictions who are considered unable to seek help despite serious health and safety risks.
Nippi-Albright said she prepared remarks based on the report, but was directed by Beck not to reference it in her response to the bill or during committee debate.
“The directive that I was given was, do not make any reference to this. Do not bring this up in committee,” she said “So I was muzzled, I guess.”
Beck disputed that account during a media scrum Wednesday. She said the report was not ignored and was used to help develop 17 amendments the NDP brought forward during five hours of committee discussion.
“What Ms. Nippi-Albright was told was that she was not to table the report in its entirety,” Beck said. “But there was no muzzling of talk of that report.”
Beck said the NDP caucus voted against Bill 48 after the government rejected the amendments. She said she was surprised by Nippi-Albright’s decision and by how the issue had been described publicly.
“I don’t think that Betty is being completely honest in her representation of how things went,” Beck said, while adding that she wished Nippi-Albright well.
The dispute also falls into a wider debate in Saskatchewan over how governments should respond to addictions, violence and overdose risk, particularly in Indigenous communities.
Last August, Metis Nation-Saskatchewan declared a state of emergency over alcohol, drugs, gangs and violence, and called for provincial and federal support for culturally appropriate, land-based treatment centres and community-led programs. At the time, MN-S cabinet ministers told the Daily Herald that recovery efforts had to be rooted in culture, language, ceremony and lived experience.
Nippi-Albright said Wednesday that several service providers and experts raised concerns about similarities between Bill 48 and past government policies affecting Indigenous people. She also said health care providers and service users were concerned about whether private health information could be used to build a case for forced treatment.
In an April 1 joint statement, the Saskatchewan Medical Association and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan said they had significant concerns about the Compassionate Intervention Act, including concerns that involutary addictions treatment is not supported by clinical evidence and may increase overdose risk following release from detention.
Nippi-Albright did not give a direct yes or no answer during the scrum when reporters asked whether she opposes forced treatment. She said she supports evidence-based approaches and said the evidence she reviewed showed serious risks.
Beck said the NDP supports the principle only in a small number of extreme cases, with safeguards and as a last resort, but could not support Bill 48 as written.
The Daily Herald requested comment from the provincial government on Nippi-Albright’s concerns about Bill 48 and her decision to sit as an Independent, but did not receive a response by the 4 p.m. deadline.
