Ontario’s opioid crisis is ripping through men working in the construction industry, accounting for nearly eight per cent of all opioid-related deaths in the province between 2017 and 2020, a new report suggests. 

The report found 428 people who worked, or had previously worked in construction died from 2017-2020 in Ontario. That’s eight per cent of all opioid-related deaths, even though the profession only employs seven per cent of the province’s workforce. 

In 87 per cent of cases, researchers found unregulated fentanyl to have directly contributed to deaths. Those construction workers aged 25 to 44 lost their lives at rate higher than those without construction in their employment history, while 98 per cent of construction workers who died from overdose identified as men.

The report was published by the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner, and Public Health Ontario.

The findings are not surprising to Jase Watford, who lives in Thunder Bay, Ont., and for 12 years worked in construction across western Canada as his struggle with addictions deepened.

By the time he became homeless, he was picking up work for a few days on road or residential construction sites, then disappearing for the next week into stimulant and opioid use before starting the cycle again.

“The lifestyle of a construction worker is work hard, play hard,” Watford said. “They expect a lot of you and you work as hard as you can. If you play hard, there’s the availability to play very, very, very hard. If you don’t have good self-control and good boundaries, you can find yourself in a deep hole, very quickly.”

Watford says people in Thunder Bay saved his life through treatment.

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