You may be wondering where Canada’s federal political parties stand when it comes to addressing the overdose and toxic drug crisis—an issue that continues to devastate families and communities across the country. With lives being lost every day to preventable deaths, and with harm reduction, treatment, and decriminalization at the center of urgent national conversations, clarity from our political leaders is more important than ever.

Like you, Moms Stop the Harm wants to better understand how each party plans to respond to this crisis. In an effort to bring transparency to the forefront and empower voters with information, MSTH reached out directly to the five major federal parties to ask where they stand on the overdose and toxic drug crisis.

Not every party chose to respond. Those that did, their responses, unedited and in their own words, are shared below:

Question 1: Would your party create a legal and policy environment that funds evidence-based programs to facilitate the development and scaling up of harm reduction services Canada wide?

Green Party: The Green Party supports funding and expanding harm reduction services, including supervised consumption sites, drug-checking services, and a federally managed safe supply program. We advocate for decriminalizing drug possession and standardizing harm reduction policies nationwide to ensure access, save lives, and integrate these services into public health systems.

NDP: The toxic drug crisis has torn families apart, terrified parents, and destroyed lives. New Democrats want to keep people alive and help them pursue recovery when they’re ready. That means listening to experts and supporting harm reduction measures that reduce the risk of death from the toxic drug supply.

Harm reduction is only one part of the continuum of care however, and New Democrats would also invest in prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery. We would develop a comprehensive, compassionate plan to respond to this public health emergency, informed by experts in health and law enforcement, Indigenous and community leaders, as well as people with lived and living experience.

Question 2: Would your party ensure that there is a regulated supply of widely available and easily accessible pharmaceutical alternatives to toxic unregulated street drugs?

Green Party: Yes. The Green Party will ensure a regulated, widely available, and easily accessible pharmaceutical alternative to toxic street drugs through a Federally Managed Safe Supply Program. We support distribution in pharmacies, treatment facilities, and safe consumption sites to prevent overdoses and prioritize evidence-based, health-focused drug policies.

NDP: Highly contaminated toxic drugs are killing Canadians every day. New Democrats believe in policies that are grounded in evidence, and the evidence says that what we are doing in is not working to combat the toxic drug crisis.

We must keep people alive, first, by reducing their exposure to the toxicity of illegal street drugs. New Democrats would invest in a full spectrum of support for people who use substances, including supervised consumption sites; real- time, on-demand public treatment options; and pharmaceutical-grade options and alternatives to illegal street drugs. We would also ensure that people have housing.

We know that safer supply reduces the risk of death and overdose, reduces reliance on an unregulated supply of drugs, increases access to engagement with health and social services, improves social well-being and stability, reduces ER visits and hospitalizations, improves physical and mental health, and reduces health care costs.

Question 3: Would your party decriminalize the personal possession of illegal drugs? Also, would your party legislate this change rather than relying on informal, incremental, and discretionary measures that fall short of real decriminalization?

Green Party: Yes. The Green Party will legislate full decriminalization of personal drug possession at the federal level, replacing discretionary policies with a consistent legal framework. We prioritize a health-based approach, pairing decriminalization with expanded harm reduction, treatment access, and a federally managed safe supply program to save lives.

NDP: Our position has always been guided by evidence, experts, people with lived experience and their loved ones. People are dying, and families are struggling to cope. We must look at this crisis differently if we want to see real change.

In provinces with conservative premiers that do not have safe supply or decriminalization and do not believe in harm reduction, deaths are soaring. In Parliament, New Democrats introduced legislation that would have decriminalized certain substances, expunged certain drug-related convictions, and required the Minister of Health to develop a national strategy to address the harm caused by problematic substance use. Liberals and Conservatives voted against it, blocking the bill from moving forward.

Experts in law enforcement, public health, and addiction medicine have been clear that we can’t arrest our way out of this crisis. Decriminalization removes stigma and gives people a chance to get help without the fear of being treated like a criminal. We would work with provinces and local communities to ensure decriminalization is done in a way that improves health outcomes while keeping our communities safe.

Question 4: Would your party move to legally regulate all drugs based on the best available evidence regarding harms and benefits and as a step towards framing drug use as a health and social issue?

Green Party: The Green Party believes in immediate decriminalization of all drugs for personal use. Legal and regulated prescribed alternatives must be made available to anyone who requires their use. Furthermore, the Green Party believes the scope of such legal frameworks must be limited to opioid agonist therapy (OAT) where substance use disorders are present. The Green Party also strongly recommends that access to safe consumption sites must be expanded to alleviate the pressures on the healthcare system and to reduce incidents of violence.

To turn the tide on this crisis, we need to increase efforts to prevent problematic substance use before it starts. New Democrats will invest in youth substance use prevention and education as a cost-effective way to build healthier communities.

It's also essential that those struggling with substance use can get help when they need it. New Democrats will work to eliminate wait times for publicly funded treatment programs and improve access to evidence-based drug replacement therapies.

Question 5: If elected, would your party meet with people who access these services, their families and provinces to develop a framework that commits governments to dramatically increase investment in regulated recovery services that are guided by high standards and subject to regular monitoring? Also, would your party ensure that other substance use health services fall under this framework?

Green Party: Yes. The Green Party will meet with affected individuals, families, and provinces to develop a framework for regulated, well-funded recovery services with high standards and oversight. We will integrate substance use health services into universal healthcare, ensure consistent monitoring, and expand accessible, evidence-based, and culturally safe treatment options nationwide.

NDP: If we’re going to stop preventable deaths and build healthier communities, we need to treat the toxic drug crisis as exactly what it is: a public health emergency.

New Democrats would rapidly develop a comprehensive, adequately funded plan to respond to this crisis which has gone on too long. That includes scaling up prevention, education, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support. It also includes ensuring law enforcement have the tools they need to ensure all Canadians feel safe in their communities.

Question 6: Would your party declare the toxic unregulated drug crisis a national public health emergency so that it is taken seriously and funded appropriately? Also, would you ensure that emergency measures are guided by the people most affected?

Green Party: Yes. The Green Party will declare the toxic drug crisis a national public health emergency, ensuring appropriate funding and urgent action. We will implement evidence-based solutions, including harm reduction, safe supply, and decriminalization, while ensuring emergency measures are guided by those most affected, including people who use drugs and their families.

NDP: We will work to develop a comprehensive, health-based response to this crisis. That includes ensuring supports are in place to help people get well, like publicly funded treatment and affordable housing.

New Democrats will address the affordable housing crisis by building homes on public land, cracking down on corporate landlords, increasing the supply of homes people can afford and implementing federal rent controls.

Question 7: What funding would your party provide to scale-up prevention, harm reduction and treatment services?

Green Party: The Green Party would call for immediate federal funding as well as guarantees from the provinces to meet minimum funding commitments to combat the toxic drug crisis with regard to federal transfers as part of their annual budgets. We would also work with the provinces to standardize their approaches to opening safe consumption sites, safe inhalation centres and overdose prevention sites, so that physicians do not have to resort to opening pop-up facilities outside of hospitals.

NDP: Canada needs to take a compassionate, integrated and coordinated approach to respond to the toxic drug crisis: treatment, housing and health care. New Democrats would listen to the experts and stop criminalizing people who use substances, expunge the records of people who have been charged with personal possession, and ensure that Canadians have access to a safe supply and treatment on demand. We would meet people where they are at and invest in recovery, education and prevention.

Bloc Québécois

The Bloc Québécois sent a statement summarizing their stance.

Il n’y a pas de solutions simples et uniques à un problème aussi complexe qu’est la crise des opioïdes.

Le Bloc Québécois est d’avis que le fédéral a effectué le travail à moitié en introduisant des mesures de déjudiciarisation dans le Code criminel avec le projet de loi C-5. Accueillir les problèmes de dépendance d’abord comme un problème de santé publique était la bonne chose à faire, mais il n’a pas investi massivement pour compléter ce changement de paradigme.

Le Bloc croit que les Transferts canadiens en matière de santé (TCS) et les Transferts canadiens en matière de programmes sociaux (TCPS) doivent être augmentés significativement afin que le Québec puisse mettre en place des programmes qui amélioreront les déterminants sociaux[1] de la santé. La lutte à la pauvreté, l’accès aux services de santé mentale et l’accès au logement sont des priorités parallèles à la lutte contre les dépendances.

Le fédéral doit donc soutenir le plan du Québec pour lutter contre les dépendances.

Même s’il est favorable aux mesures de déjudiciarisation pour possession simple, le Bloc Québécois croit qu’il est important de lutter contre les narcotrafiquants. Le Bloc Québécois propose une série de mesures pour lutter contre le trafic de stupéfiants aux frontières (voir la fiche correspondante).

La vérité est qu’aucune de ces initiatives ne réglera la crise par elle-même, il faudra œuvrer sur plusieurs fronts. Le Québec en est conscient et a développé son propre plan d’action.

La Stratégie nationale de prévention des surdoses de SPA 2022-2025, du Québec, qui succède à la Stratégie nationale 2018-2020 de prévention et de réponse aux surdoses d’opioïdes, s’attaque non seulement aux opioïdes, mais aux autres substances psychoactives. La stratégie comprend 15 mesures à travers sept champs d’action : 1) sensibilisation, 2) prévention des surdoses et réduction des méfaits ; 3) politiques publiques et règlementation 4) Vigie et surveillance, 5) évaluation, recherche et formation, 6) traitements de la dépendance, 7) traitements de la douleur.

Le Bloc Québécois souhaite que le fédéral ne nuise pas et même contribue à appuyer le Québec et les provinces dans leur approche.

[1] Le revenu et le statut social, l'emploi et les conditions de travail, l'éducation et la littératie, les expériences vécues pendant l'enfance, l'environnement physique, le soutien social et la capacité d'adaptation, les comportements sains, l'accès aux services de santé, la biologie et le patrimoine génétique, le genre, la culture, la race et le racisme. Source : Canada.ca

Despite repeated requests, the Liberal Party and Conservative Party of Canada did not respond.