Over $86M to reduce substance-use harms and prevent overdoses: Quebec-Ottawa join forces

The federal government says that Canada is facing one of the most serious public health crises in its history – the toxic illegal drug and overdose crisis. And on Friday, Ottawa and Quebec announced more than $86.8 million to tackle this, notably through prevention, harm reduction, treatment and rehabilitation measures.

“We are doing this to save lives, to bring people to a place of healing and wholeness,” said Ya’ara Saks, Federal Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, at the announcement for the Canada-Quebec Contribution Agreement to address substance use and addictions.

“The fact that we’re having funding from the federal government for four years for the first time enables us to provide funding to clinical projects to services to the population including through community organizations,” said Lionel Carmant, Quebec Minister Responsible for Social Services, also at the press conference.

This federal funding will support more than 96 projects in the province based on the needs of each region of Quebec – and each of the services and programs are selected by the provincial government. Seventy-six selected are clinical projects that will provide direct services such as those provided by the organization L’Anonyme – that has two mobile supervised injection sites on buses that are set up throughout Montreal.

“The main issue is that the approvisation (sourcing) of those substances is fluctuating quite a lot so someone could be getting what is their usual fix one day and then the next day it’s way more potent so they’re unable to adjust the dose in real time and that’s what causes what we’re seeing today in the overdose crisis,” said Félix-Antoine Guérin, the coordinator for the Proximity Intervention Program for L’Anonyme.

“L’Anonyme, what they’ll be doing it will be circulating in the streets of Montreal normally the center of the city, but all around the city to provide services drug testing giving tools clean tools to people who want to use drugs and as well as you know when they need when there’s overdoses as well,” added Carmant.

“There’s an illicit toxic drug supply that is so deadly and so dangerous that without organizations like L’Anonyme doing the work every day in community out on the streets, meeting people where they are at to provide them with harm reduction,” explained Saks, adding, “we would be losing more people. That’s the bottom line.”

L’Anonyme will receive $2.5 million over four years from this federal funding. The organization also has a third mobile unit to respond to calls.

“The other mobile we have works on calls. So people need to use, they call us, and if we’re available, we go to them, or we go to them once we’re done with the people we’re seeing,” said Guérin. 

There are also 20 research projects receiving funding that are overseen by various institutional and community partners aimed at developing new knowledge about addiction and substance abuse. 

“Across the country, organizations are working tirelessly to provide essential support to people who use substances. It is essential that funding be directed where it can have the greatest impact. We must use every tool at our disposal to tackle the overdose crisis, including supporting those who provide vital services to people in need of treatment,” said Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Federal Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec.

“Substances circulating on the market have become extremely dangerous; Today, to use them is to endanger your life. That’s why we need to go even further in our prevention efforts by allowing those who wish to do so to test their drugs, but we also need to provide better support to people who use substances and to those around them, who often need help as well,” said Carmant.

Federal funding for this agreement comes from Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP) and are being provided to the government of Quebec without conditions.