The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling out Premier John Hogan's Liberal government for secretly burning through more than $1 million a year on crack pipes, needles, and drug-use paraphernalia — all while overdose deaths in the province continue to rise.

According to documents obtained through Access to Information, the Department of Health and Community Services handed over $664,000 in base funding last year to the Safe Works Access Program, then quietly kicked in another $360,000 in “one-time” top-ups when costs ballooned. That pushed the taxpayer tab past the million-dollar mark in a single year.

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And the spending spree isn’t just on paper — the numbers show a staggering volume of taxpayer-funded drug gear flooding the streets. In 2023–24 alone, the program distributed:

• 114,750 crack pipes (up from 74,520 the year before),

• Over 1 million syringes,

• 100,000 brass screens,

• 16,000 bowl pipes,

• And thousands of fentanyl and benzodiazepine test strips.

All of this, CTF points out, while Newfoundland and Labrador’s apparent opioid and stimulant-related deaths spiked by 28 per cent in 2024. Across the rest of Canada? Deaths actually dropped by 19 per cent, according to federal data.

“Taxpayers are spending over a million dollars a year on crack pipes and needles, yet overdoses in Newfoundland and Labrador are going up,” said CTF Atlantic Director Devin Drover. “Without transparency, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are left in the dark on this program. Taxpayers deserve absolutely open accountability about the money and results of this program.”

Drover added: “While other provinces are seeing fewer deaths, Newfoundland and Labrador is going in the wrong direction. Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are right to have questions about this policy and it’s wrong for the government to hide even one document about what’s going on here.”

For a province already struggling with strained health care, high taxes, and shrinking affordability, the revelation that taxpayer dollars are being shoveled into a program that hands out drug paraphernalia by the truckload will be another bitter pill.