Backgrounder
Throughout 2025-26, the federal government took targeted action and continued to support individuals, families and communities. Alongside, the federal government works with all levels of government and key partners to respond to the illegal drug crisis through targeted measures in prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery initiatives, and combatting organized drug crime.
June 15, 2026
Throughout 2025-26, the federal government took targeted action and continued to support individuals, families and communities. Alongside, the federal government works with all levels of government and key partners to respond to the illegal drug crisis through targeted measures in prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery initiatives, and combatting organized drug crime.
Community-focused funding
Health Canada’s Emergency Treatment Fund (ETF) supported municipalities and Indigenous communities in delivering rapid responses to urgent substance use challenges. During the 2025-26 fiscal year, the ETF provided over $70 million to more than 90 projects supporting municipalities and Indigenous communities across Canada. Furthermore, through the Substance and Addictions Program (SUAP), Health Canada provided funding to other levels of government and to community-led, Indigenous, and not-for-profit organizations for a wide range of projects across the continuum of care. During the 2025-26 fiscal year, SUAP provided over $75 million to more than 90 projects supporting municipalities and Indigenous communities across Canada.
In August 2025, $2.9 million was announced through the Youth Substance Use Prevention Program (YSUPP) to support four projects in Alberta and Ontario. In November 2025, an additional $6 million was announced through the YSUPP to support nine community projects across Canada, to expand their prevention efforts and strengthen local initiatives.
Support for Indigenous communities
On March 27, 2026, the Minister of Indigenous Services Canada announced a new federal investment of nearly $1.4 billion to enhance health, wellness, and community supports for Indigenous Peoples. As part of this investment, a total of $630 million over two years (2026-27 to 2027-28) will support the availability, accessibility, quality, and effectiveness of mental wellness services for Indigenous Peoples across the country, including wraparound supports at opioid agonist therapy sites, mental wellness teams and continued access to crisis lines. Maintaining its existing distinctions-based approach to the allocation of funding, the Department directs a portion of this investment to Modern Treaty and Self-Governing Indigenous Governments to support community-based, land-based, culturally relevant and trauma informed mental health services addressing – among other things – suicide and addictions crises.
Public education and awareness
Public education campaigns continued to raise awareness about opioids and overdose prevention across Canada through targeted initiatives, including through the “Know More Opioids” and “Reduce Your Risk” experiential marketing campaigns and the strategic partnerships that were paired with them. These initiatives focused on prevention, reducing stigma, and encouraging help-seeking behaviours and reached diverse audiences, including youth, young adults, men in trades, and other event participants. These efforts also increased public awareness and practical skills related to naloxone use and overdose response.
Knowledge mobilization
In April 2026, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada organized a Best Brain Exchange to understand individual, community and service adaptations as a driver of declining opioid-related deaths in Canada to inform policy action. The event brought together researchers, federal and provincial/territorial public health, policymakers, funders, and persons with lived and living experience to discuss how people who use drugs, service providers, and their communities have adapted to severe drug toxicity and shaped innovative overdose prevention services to better meet needs and save lives.
Illegal drug trade monitoring and surveillance
As part of Canada’s Border Plan, Health Canada launched the Precursor Chemical Risk Management Unit (PCRMU) to provide enhanced oversight of precursor chemicals, and enhance monitoring and surveillance to support timely law enforcement action to help stop the flow of illegal synthetic drugs like fentanyl. Through this Unit, the department finalized amendments to further strengthen Canada’s controls for precursor chemicals and drug manufacturing equipment.
In addition, to address the ongoing threat of emerging substances to public health and safety, the Minister of Health made an Order in May 2026 to put in place temporary controls for two synthetic opioids, and one precursor chemical under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for one year. These controls took effect on June 6, 2026. The substances being controlled are two synthetic opioids, spirobrorphine and spirochlorphine, as well as R 29676, a precursor chemical that could be used to produce synthetic opioids. These controls provide new tools to Canadian law and border enforcement to stop the illegal importation and distribution of synthetic opioids and precursors. Anyone caught conducting unauthorized activities with these substances may be subject to criminal charges.
Health Canada expanded the National Wastewater Drug Surveillance (NWDS) initiative to over 60 sites in 11 provinces and territories. In December 2025, the department also launched the NWDS dashboard to provide in-depth information about new and emerging drugs being used in Canada. The NWDS provides information about trends in synthetic drug use and supply in Canada by analyzing wastewater samples from participating communities to detect the presence of over 550 substances.
On May 27, 2026, Health Canada launched the Canadian Drug Analysis Centre (CDAC). The CDAC expands the department’s laboratory drug testing and analytical capabilities through new dedicated lab spaces in Toronto and Vancouver. The new labs analyze illicit substances seized by law enforcement partners to help identify how and where the substances are manufactured.
Combatting organized crime and the illegal drug trade
The government is addressing the illicit financial systems that fund organized crime networks by following the money and targeting criminal profits. This includes strengthening legislation, investing in federal policing, establishing Canada’s first-ever Financial Crimes Agency, and enhancing law enforcement–financial sector collaboration through the Integrated Money Laundering Intelligence Partnership (IMLIP) and FINTRAC intelligence. Several transnational criminal organizations have also been listed as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code, providing additional tools to support investigations and disrupt criminal activity.
Law enforcement and border capacity have been reinforced. Budget 2025 announced a historic $1.7 billion investment to strengthen policing capacity, including the hiring of 1,000 new Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) personnel to support investigations into transnational organized crime, and 1,000 new Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers to enhance frontline operations. Since November 2025, an additional $8 million over four years has supported the establishment of Regional Integrated Drug Enforcement Teams in British Columbia and Ontario, bringing together multi-agency resources to target organized drug crime. Investments in advanced detection and surveillance technologies are improving the ability to detect and intercept the cross-border movement of illegal drugs, precursor chemicals, and other contraband at and between ports of entry.
Under the leadership of the Fentanyl Czar, we are strengthening domestic and international cooperation to combat transnational drug trafficking. Canada is working closely with the United States, Mexico, and other partners through joint initiatives such as the Joint Operational Intelligence Cell and the North American Joint Strike Force, co-chaired by the RCMP and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, while additional RCMP liaison officers abroad help address threats before they reach Canada.
These efforts are supported by Canada’s Border Plan and key legislation, including Bill C-22, An Act to keep Canadians Safe, and the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act (Bill C-12), which received Royal Assent in March 2026, providing stronger tools to secure borders and support enforcement.
Preventing youth involvement in gangs and organized crime remains a priority, supported by continued investments, including the planned renewal of the Building Safer Communities Fund (BSCF) with up to $157.5 million over three years. These efforts by helping to reduce entry into illegal drug markets in the first place, strengthen community and well-being, while also allowing law enforcement to focus on the most serious threats.
Looking forward
Health Canada’s plans to address the illegal drug crisis in 2026-27 include:
- Continuing to provide support through the SUAP and ETF for a wide range of innovative and evidence-informed projects aimed at reducing substance-related harms and deaths in communities across Canada.
- Raising awareness about opioid risks, promoting ways to reduce the risk of overdose, reducing stigma, and encouraging help-seeking through public education initiatives in school-based settings, targeted advertising, and strategic partnerships.
- Continuing to support Canada’s Border Plan, including by monitoring for the emergence of new substances in the illegal drug supply and expanding the NWDS and taking regulatory action as needed to support law enforcement efforts to disrupt organized drug crime.
- Through the establishment of the Canadian Drug Analysis Centre, analyzing synthetic illegal drugs and related substances submitted by law enforcement partners will help identify distribution and manufacturing patterns and sources. This information helps law enforcement and public safety partners better address the synthetic drug threat.
The Public Health Agency of Canada will continue to advance upstream prevention, national surveillance and applied research of public health outcomes related to opioids by:
- Continuing the implementation of the Youth Substance Use Prevention Program (YSUPP), including ongoing evaluation of the implementation and adaptation of the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM) within the Canadian context, to inform evidence-based programming and support continuous improvement across participating communities.
- Advancing pan-Canadian surveillance and research infrastructures in collaboration with the provincial and territorial Chief Coroners, Chief Medical Examiners, and Statistics Canada to:
- Report on all substances contributing to deaths and analyze multi-drug toxicity deaths.
- Facilitate data linkages for disaggregated data analyses that advance knowledge of risk and protective factors related to social determinants of health and health equity.
- Advancing simulation modelling activities to explore the impact of prevention, harm reduction, and treatment factors on opioid related deaths over time.
The Government of Canada holds a strong commitment to working with partners to save lives, support recovery, and address the underlying drivers of the illegal drug crisis.
