‘No One Was Getting Any Better’: When Private Addiction Centres Put Patients in Danger
An investigation by CBC’s The Fifth Estate has revealed alarming safety and oversight gaps in Canada’s private addiction treatment industry, where many facilities operate without government regulation — and in some cases, with fatal consequences.
Broken Promises and Unsafe Conditions
For Emily Bogen, a Los Angeles resident battling substance use and neurological issues from Lyme disease, a $30,000 stay at Nomina Wellness on Vancouver Island was supposed to be the start of recovery. Instead, it became a nightmare.
“No one was getting any better,” Bogen said. “The classes were a joke, the activities were a joke.”
Her family says they were promised individualized care, access to medical professionals, and luxury accommodations. What they found, instead, was a small home with unqualified staff and little structure.
“The clients there called it a crack house,” Bogen recalled.
Nomina Wellness has also been linked to the overdose death of a 27-year-old man in October 2024. Clients told investigators there was no naloxone available at the facility during the emergency — a claim disputed by staff and now under review by the coroner’s office.
Nomina declined an on-camera interview but said in an email that its website “accurately reflects our services” and that all clients “voluntarily enrol.”
A System with Almost No Oversight
Across most of Canada, for-profit addiction treatment facilities operate in what experts describe as a “regulatory vacuum.” Only Quebec and Alberta have provincewide rules that apply to all private centres.
Former B.C. chief coroner Lisa Lapointe, who has long called for reform, says families are often shocked to learn there are no provincial standards for staffing, training, or care.
“If I take my dog to a vet, I see their degree on the wall,” she said. “But when you take your vulnerable child to a private treatment centre, there are no standards, no oversight body.”
Doug Brewer, head of the Canadian Addiction Counsellors Certification Federation, said anyone can call themselves an “addiction counsellor” — no credentials required.
“It’s the Wild West,” Brewer said. “Basically anyone can open a treatment centre and start taking clients.”
Deaths and Legal Battles Across Provinces
The lack of regulation extends beyond B.C. In Ontario, a luxury rehab called Muskoka Recovery faces a $40-million class-action lawsuit after a patient died in 2024.
Plaintiff Kim Smith, herself a registered nurse, says she later learned the staff member who administered her medication wasn’t licensed.
“I looked them up on the registry, and they didn’t exist,” Smith said. “I’ve been taken advantage of in my most vulnerable moment.”
Muskoka Recovery’s lawyer denied the allegations, saying the company “categorically refutes” all claims and “will defend itself in court.”
Experts Call for Reform
Lapointe and other experts say the problem isn’t just negligence — it’s systemic failure.
“We don’t even track patient outcomes,” Lapointe said. “When someone dies after treatment, the blame falls on them, not on a system that never had standards in the first place.”
She argues that provincial governments must introduce mandatory licensing, staff certification, and safety inspections for private treatment providers.
“We can’t let people in crisis be at the mercy of corporations that can charge whatever they want and provide whatever they want,” Lapointe said.
A Family’s Regret
For the Bogen family, the experience left emotional and financial scars.
“I trusted her,” said Emily’s mother, Shawn Bogen, referring to Nomina co-owner Lisa Klco. “It felt like relief — like someone finally cared. But now I realize it was all fraudulent.”
Emily is still rebuilding her life, but her story, and others like it, have reignited calls for a national framework to protect those seeking recovery — before more families pay the price.
