Prevelance
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Societal costs of Alcohol
Heading
(in billions)
The most recent comprehensive cost study estimated the total cost of alcohol-related harm to Canadians to be $14.6 billion in 2014. This figure includes the following annual costs:
$5.9
$4.2
$3.2
$1.3
Hospitalizations
Emergency Department Visits
Department Visits
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Paramedic Service Calls
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Death
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Criminal Incidents
In 2014, 3.15 billion was spent on criminal justice costs associated with alcohol use, including the policing, courts and corrections costs of offenses that are either completely attributable to alcohol (i.e., impaired driving and drug-related offenses) or partially attributable to alcohol (i.e., violent and non-violent).3 Alcohol is disproportionately associated with violent crime compared to other types of non-violent crime (20% vs 8%). Per-person criminal justice costs associated with alcohol increased 6% from $84 per person in 2007 to $89 per person in 2014.
Pan-Canadian Investments and Initiatives
Canada has no alcohol act as it does for other legal psychoactive substances including tobacco and cannabis. The following are recent investments and initiatives on the national level that have been developed to address the harms associated with alcohol consumption:
- The National Alcohol Strategy was produced in 2007 in a process led by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Health Canada and the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission to address the harms from alcohol.43 Since then, three provinces (Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Alberta) and one territory (Nunavut) have developed alcohol strategies. British Columbia has a provincial approach to alcohol policy.
The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction has begun working with partners to update the National Alcohol Strategy, which will address issues including the availability of alcohol, underage drinking, pricing and other incentives, advertising and promotion, and labelling.
- The government of Canada recently adopted two key regulations to address alcohol-related harms:
- Bill C-46 was passed in June 2018. The bill makes certain amendments to the Criminal Code sections related to impaired driving and strengthens the criminal law response to both drug- and alcohol-impaired driving. It gives police authority to conduct roadside alcohol and drug screening.44
- With the objective to protect Canadians from unintentional overconsumption of sweetened alcoholic beverages (flavoured purified alcoholic beverages), the Food and Drug Regulations Act was amended to restrict the alcohol content of these beverages. Flavoured purified alcoholic beverages are limited to a maximum of 1.5 standard drinks if they are sold in a container volume of 1,000 mL or less, unless they are sold in glass containers of 750 mL or more.45
- Bill C-46 was passed in June 2018. The bill makes certain amendments to the Criminal Code sections related to impaired driving and strengthens the criminal law response to both drug- and alcohol-impaired driving. It gives police authority to conduct roadside alcohol and drug screening.44
- In 2016, the Minister of Health announced an updated drug strategy for Canada, the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy, which replaced the National Anti-Drug Strategy, effective April 1, 2017. The new drug strategy addresses illegal and legal problematic substance use, including alcohol, with an expanded mandate to include harm reduction as a key pillar alongside the existing pillars of prevention, treatment and enforcement.46
