First of all, thank you for talking about the crisis of opiate overdose and of substance use overall. I know that you spent many years in emergency rooms in Thunder Bay, so I think that we would probably have worked with some of the same individuals who struggled with substance use over many years.
I am extremely proud of this government in restoring harm reduction to the Canada drug strategy, and restoring what I would say is compassion to an approach of working with people who use substances. Of course, the work that we did through the SUAP—and I'll let Deputy Minister Lucas speak about the specific amount of money—and the work that we've done with providing supports to communities is, I think, the most critical in terms of supporting people who use substances. The money goes directly to community-based organizations that are working on the ground. In some cases, they are integrated with the community and know exactly how to protect community members so that they don't die and we can save lives. Then we can alleviate suffering.
I know, Dr. Powlowski, that you saw a lot of that in the years that you were in emergency rooms. These are folks, in many cases, at that scale of problematic substance use, who are really suffering. They're traumatized individuals. They're often long-standing problematic substance users.
I'm very excited that budget 2021 continues our investment in innovative mental health projects and substance use programs that are community based. As you know, we have a commitment to transferring billions of dollars to provinces and territories and working on mental health standards. All of that is important, but I think that getting money to community groups that are looking at new ways of finding folks and supporting folks is really important.
It's also really important to draw a distinction between the previous government's approach to substance use and ours. The previous government thought that it could criminalize its way out of this problem, that it could throw people who were struggling and suffering in jail and that this would solve the problem. That government in fact intentionally removed harm reduction from the Canada drug strategy and penalized groups that were actually working in communities.
As a matter of fact, I received funding from the Health Canada folks—not me personally, but the Thunder Bay District Health Unit—to do the Thunder Bay drug strategy. It was a real challenge to get that money, because at that time the Harper Conservatives did not even want the health unit to talk about alcohol or prescription opiates.
Can you imagine that, Dr. Powlowski? What do you think are the two main problem substances in our community? It's those two things. Health Canada officials worked really hard with the public health unit to make sure that the application could be funded and that we could have a community-specific drug strategy, and it is saving lives.
Maybe, Dr. Stewart, you could speak a little bit about the SUAP funding and our commitment to ongoing mental health and substance use treatment that is community grown and community delivered.