FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa, ON | November 5, 2026 – In a year marked by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s efforts to assert Canadian sovereignty amid a shifting international order and an unreliable southern neighbour, the federal budget is a fainthearted gesture towards charting a “principled, pragmatic” path on drug policy.
The toxic drug crisis — “among the worst public health emergencies in living memory” — has killed more than 57,500 people in Canada in the past decade and injured thousands more. Though this budget makes some much-needed investments, its ballooning military spending, hands-off approach to treatment standards and defending public healthcare, and continued reliance on criminalization mean it falls short of the fundamental shift in drug policy needed.
We are pleased to see some of CDPC’s recommendations in Budget 2026, including funding for mobile outreach services and overdose prevention, and renewal of the Emergency Treatment Fund.
“It is essential to fund more outreach on the streets of Cranbrook and increase drug checking services,” says Cheryl Dowden, Executive Director of ANKORS, an organization that previously received this funding. “Mobile outreach has helped support the unhoused and vulnerable populations we serve. With extra care and services, we have seen more people stabilized and wanting to take the next steps to treatment and recovery. Reinvesting in the Emergency Treatment Fund is absolutely crucial for community-based organizations like ours, and we hope to qualify for this funding in the future.”
We also welcome continued investment in the Black Justice Strategy and Indigenous Justice Strategy, both of which have the potential to support low-barrier services, alternatives to criminalization, and pathways to repair some of the disproportionate harms experienced by Black and Indigenous communities due to drug criminalization.
While we also welcome federal investment in non-market housing, health care infrastructure and a one-year extension of the addictions and mental health bilateral funding agreements with provinces and territories, whether these investments, in the words of the Prime Minister, “stop pretending” and “name reality” rests in a number of sorrily-lacking details. Funds to operate the proposed housing and health facilities are being left to the provinces. That means infrastructure money may go unused in regions that do not invest the money required for operations. It also means the federal government is willfully ignoring regions contracting public dollars out to private US-style treatment and recovery companies, eroding public healthcare and allowing for the proliferation of for-profit addiction treatment.
“This government has promised pragmatism and truth. The truth is, without a fundamental shift in Canada’s approach to the toxic drug crisis, even by the government’s own numbers, we will not stop preventable death and injury,” says Beeta Senedjani of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. “Investing in health infrastructure is well and good, but without national leadership, this budget risks funneling $2 billion in public money into building involuntary detention cells and making US-style for-profit treatment companies wealthier. All while people wait months or years for voluntary, public health services – or, if they can, pay thousands of dollars out-of-pocket to access private treatment. To ensure these investments are safe and effective, we need national standards to mandate addiction treatment be not-for-profit, accessible, high-quality, culturally responsive, upholding of human rights, and voluntary. Overall, we are glad to see that the federal government has recognized the importance of some key services and infrastructure investments, but the numbers don’t lie. This budget is about spending more on the military and borders. What we really need is investment in people through community-based health services, housing and the social services that help our communities thrive.”
-30-
Media Contacts:
Ryan Do, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
[email protected]