People don’t want to see drug addicts on the street fencing against the wind with a syringe, says Dan Williams, Alberta’s 37-year-old mental health and addiction minister.

“The compassionate thing to do is to intervene. There’s nothing more un-Canadian than leaving that individual to die in the street.”

The minister knows what communities and civic leaders across Canada are up against. Overwhelming supplies of potent synthetic opioids, including fentanyl. Surging homelessness and dangerous encampments. And citizens who want to see public order restored.