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Lost Productivity

The impact of substance use on people’s ability to work in Canada translated to $22.4 billion in lost productivity costs in 2020. This accounts for 45.6% of the total overall cost of $49.1 billion. This is equivalent to $589 per person in Canada.

Lost productivity costs include:

  • Lost value of work due to premature deaths and
  • Long- and short-term disability.
Employers can support their employees by developing policies and investing in prevention, harm reduction and treatment programs.

Lost Productivity Costs by the Numbers

Pie chart of all costs associated with substance use in Canada in 2020 focuses only on lost productivity costs, which accounted for $22.4 billion.

  • Costs associated with the use of alcohol and tobacco accounted for about 60% of all lost productivity costs associated with substance use.

  • Nearly 74,000 deaths attributable to substance use occurred in 2020.
    • This includes 24,346 deaths among people younger than 65 years old, which amounted to 345,091 potential years of productive life lost.

  • While tobacco (46,366) and alcohol (17,098) use led to more deaths than opioid use (6,491), most opioid-attributable deaths occurred at a relatively young age. As a result, by 2020, opioid use led to the highest costs associated with lost value of work due to premature death.

Lost Productivity Costs Per Person (2007-2020)

Overall costs increased 16.2%, from $507 to $589
Opioids costs more than doubled, from $69 to $139
Central nervous system (CNS) stimulants (excluding cocaine) costs rose 88.5%, from $22 to $41
Tobacco costs decreased 23.7%, from $181 to $138

Deaths Attributable to Substance Use (2007-2020)

Deaths attributable to opioid use rose 134% from 2,770 to 6,491
Deaths attributable to CNS stimulants (excluding cocaine) increased 108% from 729 to 1,518

Emerging Trends in Lost Productivity Costs

  • The number of deaths due to use of opioids or CNS stimulants (excluding cocaine) more than doubled. This was driven by large increases in unintentional deaths, which consist primarily of substance poisonings caused by an increasingly toxic unregulated drug supply.
  • Lost productivity costs rebounded to their highest level ever during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Per-person lost productivity costs associated with opioids increased more than 30% from $105 to $139 between 2019 and 2020 alone.
  • Overall lost productivity costs declined between 2018 and 2019 due to a decrease in premature deaths from opioid use and the associated productivity costs. This may have been driven in part by increased investment and expansion of prevention, harm reduction and treatment services aimed at reducing harms from the toxic unregulated drug supply.

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