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Frostbite amputations reached new high in Edmonton, decreased in Calgary last winter

Original source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/frostbite-amputations-reached-new-high-in-edmonton-decreased-in-calgary-last-winter-1.7358413 Retrieved: 2026-07-04 Author/date: Taylor Lambert, CBC News, Oct 22 2024 CBC id: 1.7358413

Establishes the clean fiscal-year AHS series for Edmonton frostbite amputations and the direct advocate/doctor link to the encampment-eviction policy.

The fiscal-year series (Edmonton health zone, "amputations with a diagnosis of frostbite")

  • 2021-22: 91 (previous record)
  • 2022-23: 71
  • 2023-24: 110 (new record)
  • (2024-25: 113 — per the Dec 2025 CBC piece)
  • "the Edmonton health zone saw 110 amputations with a diagnosis of frostbite during the fiscal year of 2023-24. That's up from 71 the previous year, and surpasses the previous record of 91 amputations in 2021-22."
  • Calgary zone ≈ one-third of Edmonton's (known only to be 32–40 because AHS suppresses counts of 1–9 for privacy).

Disproportionate to unhoused

  • "While Edmonton's numbers rose 55 per cent from the previous year, the increase among unhoused patients was 87 per cent."
  • "More than half of such procedures in both cities last winter were performed on patients recorded as homeless."
  • Cold-injury ED diagnoses: Edmonton up 9% to 895; Calgary down 17% to 630.
  • Weather near-identical: Edmonton 21 days below –20 C, Calgary 17.

Scope caveat (zone ≠ city)

  • "The health zones include areas well beyond the two cities. Banff and Claresholm are in the Calgary zone, while the Edmonton zone includes Morinville and Evansburg." So these are Edmonton-zone, not city-only, figures.
  • Chris Wiebe (counsel, Coalition for Justice and Human Rights): "sees a direct connection between the encampment removals and the spike in frostbite amputations"; "that's consistent with what the coalition's expert witnesses said would happen — that encampment evictions increase the risk of exposure to cold weather and thus increase the risk of cold-related illnesses like frostbite."
  • EPS admission: the spike "may be due to greater intervention by EPS encampment response teams, who regularly found people needing medical assistance for exposure, hypothermia and frostbite."
  • Dr. Scott MacLean: "I don't think that taking away limited shelter when inadequate shelter spaces are available has been helpful."
  • Province (Seniors, Community and Social Services): "Removing people from freezing cold tents to warm shelters does not contribute to an increase in frostbite... Alberta will not tolerate a return to allowing dangerous encampments to remain." Both province and EPS confirmed the eviction policy would continue that winter.
  • City: "While the statistics on frostbite amputations are concerning, they highlight the broader, systemic challenges of homelessness that extend beyond the city's direct control."

Calgary divergence (honest complication)

Calgary uses iloprost aggressively (since 2019, Yukon-derived protocol) while Edmonton rarely did — Dr. Catherine Patocka (U Calgary) and MacLean both flag treatment differences, not just evictions, as a plausible driver of the divergence. So the Edmonton-vs-Calgary gap is over-determined; the honest read is that evictions AND treatment gaps both plausibly contributed. But note iloprost was in use in Calgary from 2019 and Calgary still spiked to 91 in 2021-22, so treatment alone doesn't explain it.