Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's chief of staff, Marshall Smith, takes a moment in his office in Edmonton, on, May 23.Megan Albu/The Globe and Mail
The man who Danielle Smith has called “the spiritual leader for all of us in the government” and who leads the province’s addictions and mental-health push, is departing her office after two years as the province’s top political staffer. It’s most curious timing.
Marshall Smith, the Alberta Premier’s chief of staff, is a controversial but leading figure in the polarized debate on the drug crisis, which pits harm reduction against the recovery programs he favours. And his boss faces a key leadership test in a matter of weeks.
But Mr. Smith is retiring from public service this month, the Premier said in a post on social-media site X after the story was first reported by the conservative news site, the Western Standard.
“With a background serving in the mental health and addiction field, Marshall came to Alberta with the goal of implementing the most comprehensive change in mental health and addiction policy anywhere in the world,” the Premier wrote on Tuesday.
“The Alberta Model is gaining international recognition and sweeping Canada as the common sense approach to addressing mental health and addiction.” Deaths as a result of opioid addiction are down 53 per cent in June compared with the same time last year, she said.
Rob Anderson, executive director of the Premier’s office and a long-time ally of Ms. Smith, will take over as chief of staff.
Although the Premier said on X that this change has been in the works since January, the timing is notable on a number of fronts. It comes just a month after Recovery Alberta, Mr. Smith’s baby, officially took over delivery of mental health and addictions services from Alberta Health Services. (AHS is the centralized provincial health agency being broken into parts by the United Conservative Party government).
It also comes just weeks before the UCP heads into the fall legislature sitting with contentious bills in the offering, including her government’s take on sex education, pronouns and gender-affirming treatments for youth. Ms. Smith (no relation to Marshall Smith) also faces a charged and consequential leadership review at a UCP annual meeting in Red Deer on Nov. 2.
In the summer, Mr. Smith was in the thick of revelations that cabinet ministers and staffers attended Edmonton Oilers games at the invitation of a man whose business interests include government contracts, and the import of children’s pain medication from Turkey. It came after the UCP changed ethics rules to make it easier for politicians and their staff to accept gifts and tickets, which also gave the Premier’s chief of staff a wide berth to determine acceptable gifts for political employees.
Mr. Smith’s unusual backstory is part of his political rise. Twenty years ago, he went from being a high-flying B.C. political aide to living through homelessness and addiction in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. He eventually found recovery, and became a key part of the community that favours spending on treatment and recovery services over harm-reduction measures, such as supervised drug-use sites and supplying prescription opioids.
He has been far more focused on this file than being a traditional chief of staff. Mr. Smith told The Globe how he sketched out the design for the 75-bed Red Deer recovery centre that opened in 2023, and even selected the carpets. He is so laser-focused, he has said of himself, “I’m a nightmare to work for – I can be bitchy and sucky and, you know, angry.”
Many health professionals warn that the Alberta approach fails to acknowledge the nature of addiction or the toxicity of street drugs. However, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has praised the Alberta Model (also referred to as the Marshall Model). And British Columbia’s decision in April to roll back part of its landmark experiment with decriminalizing possession of small amounts of hard drugs is seen as an affirmation that its take on harm reduction has fallen short of public expectations.
Mr. Smith’s role in Alberta isn’t completely done. As a member of the Premier’s staff, Mr. Smith must abide by the Conflicts of Interest Act’s one-year cooling-off period, which prevents him from taking paid work with the government. But Mr. Anderson said Tuesday that Mr. Smith “has made it clear to the Premier and I, we can call any time if we need any free and friendly advice” on the overdose crisis.
This development also shifts the structure of the Alberta Premier’s office. Erika Barootes, who served as principal secretary in the Premier’s office in late 2022 and early 2023, said when she worked there, she handled files deemed political, Mr. Anderson focused on policy, and Mr. Smith was to focus on staffing. But there was much overlap between the people reporting to the Premier.
“The change of this administration and putting Rob Anderson as chief of staff is a return to a more traditional premier’s office structure,” Ms. Barootes said on Tuesday. “Now, there’s one person accountable.”