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Quebec is projected to surpass 600 drug overdose deaths for a second consecutive year and experts are repeating calls for the province to do more to curb this trend.
The province’s institute for public health, known as the INSPQ, recorded 645 confirmed or suspected drug overdose deaths in 2024 — the highest total ever recorded in Quebec.
So far in 2025, the INSPQ has reported 453 deaths between January and September. That projects to about 604 deaths for the year.
Those who work directly with people struggling with drug addiction say demand for help is expanding.
Resources, however, aren’t.
‘The numbers don’t lie’
Anthony Berger is a clinical supervisor at Dunham House in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.
He says applications for the English-language residential treatment facility for substance use and mental health increased by about 16 per cent in both 2024 and 2025.
But Berger notes they only have a 38-bed facility.
“We cannot accommodate everybody with the sheer number, right? So where do these people go?” said Berger.
He says the Quebec government needs to make significant contributions and investments in treatment centers where they’ve experienced cuts.
“Treatment centres like ours require even more funding to attract professionals,” said Berger.
“Some people will continue to not be treated … will continue to treat their mental health struggles through substance use which continues that vicious cycle.”
He says people talk about the need for the continuum of care — including social housing and drug supply safety but he says it’s really about the “prevention piece.”
“This is not new in Quebec,” he said. “The numbers don’t lie.”
Sarah Kozusko of Regina’s Queen City Wellness Pharmacy gives step-by-step instructions on how to use naloxone to potentially save a life after an overdose.
But medical and addiction-based services for English speakers in the province are dwindling, says Berger. In 2024, the MUHC’s Addiction Psychiatry Program in Montreal closed.
“The ones that do exist get overwhelmed, such as ourselves,” said Berger. “There aren’t very many centres like ours.”
When an Anglophone is looking for residential inpatient care for addiction or mental health in Quebec, “we’re probably the only ones that exist right now for affordability,” said Berger.
Quebec nowhere as bad as B.C., but trend is worrisome
Quebec’s statistics for drug overdoses is significantly lower than provinces like B.C., which had over 2,000 deaths from toxic drugs in 2024.
Patricia Conrod, professor of psychiatry and addiction at the Université de Montréal, notes however that Quebec’s numbers are going in a different direction compared to other provinces who have traditionally struggled with high rates of drug overdoses, such as B.C.
Data suggests that maybe one of the strongest drivers for the decrease in the opioid crisis in other provinces was the very fact that some had “so many deaths,” says Conrod.
“There were just far fewer people who were users left to affect in that way. Which is a really, you know, very sad state,” she said.
Conrod notes Quebec hasn’t “reached that saturation level yet.”
“And we absolutely need to get active in order to make sure we don’t get to that point,” said Conrod, who is a Canada Research Chair in preventive mental health and addiction.
“I think it’s all hands on deck in Quebec right now and in New Brunswick where you’re seeing similar increases in this unfortunate trend.”
A study by McGill University researchers analyzed data from Toronto police and examined nine Toronto supervised drug consumption sites. However, some Winnipeg businesses near the proposed location for Manitoba’s first site say the study’s findings don’t change their mind.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the ministry of health and social services said deaths related to opioids and other drugs are “concerning and being followed closely.”
The ministry says the situation is changing rapidly with an evolving illicit market — notably with drug contamination that is no longer limited to opioids.
Judgement, public opinion impacting services
From what she sees at her place of work, Jade Lalumière, says addictions appear to be taking a growing toll.
“Every year that passes by, it’s getting worse,” says Lalumière, team leader at the Maison Benoît-Labre shelter and supervised drug consumption site in Montreal’s Sud-Ouest borough.
Its drug consumption site faced public scrutiny when parents and residents nearby said they’ve witnessed open drug use, aggressive behaviour and sexual conduct from clients of the centre — located next to an elementary school.
The site could be forced to move. A provincial law that passed last fall outlines that drug consumption centres can’t be located within 150 metres of a school or daycare.
While numbers from the Montreal police in 2024 tied the shelter to an increase in mischief and more calls to emergency services, a January 2025 study by McGill University researchers found consumption sites were not linked to long-term crime increases in the data they analyzed from Toronto.
Lalumière says public perception can have a direct impact on services for those struggling with addiction if people vote for policies that limit access or oppose the safe-supply approach — which provides prescribed and regulated medications to people who use drugs as a safer alternative.
“Which is [a] thing that reduces the quantity of people that lose their life to addiction,” she said.
“To have that judgement about us and about our users … We’re just trying our best to make them survive.”
