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........

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