Thank you for the opportunity to clarify the significant investments that are in budget 2017 related to the opioid crisis. You and I were both involved in the very important policy forum that took place over the last couple of days here in Ottawa to discuss this. There's no question that this is a crisis of unprecedented proportions, requiring all of our efforts to be able to address the realities that you've eloquently described in terms of the number of people who are dying.
In the time that remains, what I can say to you is yes, we provided that $16 million of emergency funding directly to those provinces that are facing the crisis in the most severe ways, but in fact there are significant new investments. The Canadian drugs and substances strategy has ongoing funding in the budget. We did not take anything away that was previously there, and it had been allocated to the level of $570 million over the next five years just for that strategy alone. We were able to bring a 20% increase to that, bringing the total investments in the Canadian drugs and substances strategy an additional more than $100 million to be able to amplify that.
I also need to make sure that you know that this is a problem that has widespread implications and requires a comprehensive response, and that's why we did things like the $5-billion investment in mental health. You know the links between mental health and the opioid overdose crisis. You also know that investments in things like housing—$11 billion to our national housing strategy—will go a long way. This is not a crisis that's going to be fixed overnight, and it requires all those social determinants of health to make sure people have access to employment, that they have access to safe housing, and that we get good health care.
I will work with you. This is not a political or a partisan issue. This is one of the most serious public health crises that we have faced in this country; we are determined to turn it around, and I look forward to working with the committee.