Opioid and stimulant consumption patterns in select Canadian cities, January 2024 to March 2026
Released: 2026-09-22
Canadian Wastewater Survey, 2024 to 2025
17.1% 
(period-to-period change)
Canadian Wastewater Survey, 2024 to 2025
7.1%
(period-to-period change)
Canadian Wastewater Survey, 2024 to 2025
-42.3% 
(period-to-period change)
New Canadian Wastewater Survey results from January 2024 to March 2026 show declining fentanyl levels in Metro Vancouver and relatively high stimulant consumption (e.g., methamphetamine and cocaine) in multiple cities in the Prairie provinces and in Moncton.
The results published today, in a data table and interactive dashboard, provide timely information on the consumption of selected drugs across eight cities in Canada. These data complement other sources, like death data, by helping inform whether changes in mortality reflect shifts in consumption, toxicity, or other underlying risks. Today's findings highlight distinct regional profiles in consumption that can help public health authorities, policymakers and public safety stakeholders respond to evolving substance use dynamics.
Relatively high but declining fentanyl levels in Metro Vancouver
From January 2024 to March 2026, Metro Vancouver consistently recorded the highest fentanyl levels among all cities monitored, as measured by the norfentanyl metabolite (a metabolite is a substance produced when the body processes a type of drug). Despite fluctuations over time, measured average fentanyl levels were lower in 2025 and early 2026 than in 2024. This reduction coincided with a decline in the overall unregulated drug death rate in Vancouver as well as in the specific percentage of unregulated fentanyl-related deaths from 2024 to 2025.
Fentanyl levels in the other cities monitored exhibited lower and more stable patterns over the collection period.
Chart 1
Average annual values of load per capita of norfentanyl for Metro Vancouver and all the other cities combined, 2024 and 2025
Stimulant levels highest in multiple cities in the Prairie provinces and in Moncton
Stimulant use is associated with cardiovascular complications and the high risk of fatality when used in combination with opioids and other substances. In 2024, more than 75% of toxicity deaths involved multiple substances, according to the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.
Overall, from January 2024 to March 2026, measured methamphetamine levels were among the highest in cities in the Prairie provinces. Prince Albert had the highest levels and the greatest fluctuations in both methamphetamine and cocaine (measured by its metabolite benzoylecgonine) over the collection period.
Infographic 1
Average daily values of load per capita of Methamphetamine in the wastewater of participating cities from January 2024 to March 2026
Saskatoon and Moncton had the next highest methamphetamine levels of all cities monitored. The relatively elevated levels in Moncton are consistent with data indicating that methamphetamine was involved in nearly two-thirds (63%) of stimulant toxicity deaths in New Brunswick in 2024, the highest proportion among the Atlantic provinces.
Conversely, Halifax consistently recorded the lowest levels of methamphetamine, while its cocaine levels were frequently above the average of all the other monitored cities combined. This finding aligns with Nova Scotia's stimulant toxicity profile, with 86% of stimulant-related deaths in 2024 involving cocaine, compared with 14% involving methamphetamine.
Infographic 2
Average daily values of load per capita of Benzoylecgonine in the wastewater of participating cities from January 2024 to March 2026
This Canadian Wastewater Survey release offers valuable insight into consumption patterns of select drugs of concern. While fentanyl remains central to Canada's overdose crisis, being involved in more than half (56%) of opioid-related deaths in 2025, stimulant use is also a significant source of substance-related harms nationally. The widespread use of cocaine and methamphetamine is reflected in the National Wastewater Drug Surveillance data, as both substances were among the four most frequently identified substances in wastewater samples as of January 2026.
Note to readers
The data table and dashboard published today include the bi-monthly estimates of the average daily load per capita over a one-week period for 10 substances of interest in eight Canadian cities: Metro Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Montréal, Halifax, Moncton, Prince Albert (Saskatchewan) and Saskatoon. The data represent a combined population of approximately 9.2 million people across the wastewater treatment plant catchment areas. The substances include the stimulants cocaine (measured through its metabolite benzoylecgonine), amphetamine, methamphetamine and ecstasy; the opioids codeine, fentanyl (measured through its metabolite norfentanyl), methadone, morphine and oxycodone; and cannabis (measured through its metabolite THC-COOH).
The wastewater-based approach can provide data that are objective, cost-effective and anonymous, with a low response burden to the wastewater treatment plants and no response burden to residents within the wastewater treatment plant catchment area. This information can help inform more targeted public health responses and law enforcement activities.
Wastewater samples were collected from the influent of wastewater treatment plants for seven consecutive days during the second week of every odd month (January, March, May, July, September and November). The daily samples were analyzed at the Centre de Toxicologie du Québec laboratory. Laboratory results and population estimates for each geographic area were then combined to estimate the daily average of drug loads per capita for each collection month in each municipality.
Samples may be missing due to missed collection, sample degradation, or outlier removal. Such samples are excluded from monthly average calculations. Monthly averages may be unavailable due to suppression, which is applied when cities have fewer than five days of data from all participating wastewater treatment plants, or when no samples are collected in the city during a given month. These months are shown as breaks in the line charts.
There are important limitations on the analysis and interpretation of estimates from wastewater samples. In particular, there is uncertainty in the estimates that is introduced from many sources, including the wastewater collection process, the measurement and analysis of biomarkers, the stability of biomarkers in the wastewater, and the calculations of per-capita consumption from excretion profiles and population estimates. For example, population estimates may not fully represent the population contributing wastewater due to factors such as commuting patterns, tourism, travel, and temporary population changes due to special events. The data collected do not allow this uncertainty to be quantified. These uncertainties also exist in other wastewater measurement programs and have been further explored in the study: Castiglioni et al. (2013). Given this uncertainty, all results in this release should be interpreted with caution. Results for cities are described only as having increased or decreased, and should be interpreted as being high, low or stable, in relation to those of other cities.
It should also be noted that, while the Canadian Wastewater Survey also measured many drugs in wastewater in 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023, the results are not directly comparable with the results for 2024 to 2026 due to a change in analytical methodology in the laboratory. Data for 2021 are not available.
Products
The product "Levels of Drugs in the Wastewater of Participating Canadian Cities" is available. This interactive dashboard provides customizable data visualization of the Canadian Wastewater Survey data starting from January 2024.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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