At first glance, the numbers seem to tell a hopeful story. Fewer adults in Ontario are drinking alcohol than before the pandemic. Overall alcohol use is down. On paper, that sounds like progress.
But look closer, and the picture darkens.
A new report from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) reveals an uncomfortable truth: while fewer Ontarians are drinking, those who do are drinking more often, more heavily, and with greater harm than before COVID-19. The province may be seeing fewer drinkers, but it is also seeing deeper dependence, riskier patterns, and worsening mental health a trade-off that should worry all of us.
Daily alcohol consumption has climbed steadily since 2019, rising from just over 7 percent to more than 10 percent of drinkers in 2025. Weekly binge drinking has surged even more sharply. These are not casual changes; they represent a shift toward more intense and hazardous drinking behaviors that took hold during the pandemic and never fully receded.
The most alarming statistic may be alcohol dependence. Before COVID-19, about 7 percent of drinkers reported symptoms of dependence. That number nearly doubled during the pandemic and, even after a slight decline, remains far above pre-pandemic levels. In other words, the crisis spike wasn’t temporary it left a lasting scar.
This matters because alcohol is not just another consumer product. It is one of the leading preventable causes of death in Canada, and its harms ripple outward into families, workplaces, emergency rooms, and mental health systems already under strain. As CAMH’s Dr. Leslie Buckley rightly warns, those at highest risk of alcohol-related harm are still drinking at “record high pandemic levels.”
The burden is not shared evenly. Men continue to drink more heavily and more dangerously than women, while younger adults are more likely to binge drink and show signs of dependence. Older adults, meanwhile, are drinking more frequently, with daily consumption highest among those over 65 a group already vulnerable to medication interactions, falls, and chronic illness.
Alcohol trends cannot be separated from mental health, and here the report delivers its bleakest findings. Ontarians are not feeling better. Rates of poor or fair mental health have risen steadily since 2020, along with frequent mental distress. Self-rated overall health has also declined. These are not abstract metrics; they reflect exhaustion, anxiety, depression, and unresolved trauma lingering years after lockdowns ended.
The increase in anti-anxiety medication use among women and antidepressant use among seniors underscores the same point: many people are coping, not recovering. For some, alcohol has become part of that coping accessible, normalized, and insufficiently challenged by policy or public messaging.
Ontario’s growing alcohol availability only adds fuel to the fire. Expanded retail access may be convenient, but convenience comes with consequences, especially when high-risk drinkers are already struggling. Reducing harm requires more than counting how many people drink; it requires confronting how, why, and at what cost.
This report should be read as a warning, not a footnote. Fewer drinkers do not automatically mean a healthier province. Until Ontario invests more seriously in mental health care, addiction services, and prevention and until it treats alcohol as a public health issue rather than a lifestyle choice the damage will continue quietly, persistently, and unevenly.
The pandemic changed our relationship with alcohol. The tragedy is that we seem willing to accept the aftermath as normal.
