Barrie mayor leading charge to push province to controversially address encampments

Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall is ready to take action to address the issue of homeless encampments popping up in open areas, which is bound to come with some backlash.  

At an unrelated press conference on Monday, Premier Doug Ford nodded towards municipalities using a clause that once invoked, allows governments to pass legislation that can essentially override certain protections under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Why don’t we put in use the notwithstanding clause, or something like that?” the premier stated. "Let's see if they have the backbone to do it."

On Thursday Nuttall met the premier’s comments with the letter Ford was demanding from various big city mayors as they pressure other levels of government for additional support to address the growing issue of encampments in open areas.

“We have hit a critical mass here in terms of the number of encampments, the number of tents, the number of incidents, the number of fires, and the number of people who are feeling insecure inside of our public spaces that we need to, we need to be able to have movement,” Nuttall said.

The letter was made public Thursday afternoon, with twelve mayors signing on including Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens and Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre, who once represented that city as a Liberal at the Federal level.

Barrie, like many municipalities are dealing with encampments taking over public parks, but multiple Ontario courts have ruled against mass evictions, saying those individuals have rights. Cities have been told unless they have available space in the shelter system to house all residents of an encampment it must remain in place.

In the letter for the premier the mayors are calling for numerous actions from the provincial government. They are asking the premier to invoke the notwithstanding clause if needed for the following measures:

• Provincial government to become intervenor on any court case restricting municipalities’ ability to prohibit encampments
• Strengthen and expand existing mental health care support
• Implement drug and diversion court system
• Amend Trespass to Property Act to address repeat acts
• Enact legislation prohibiting drug use in public spaces

“These are pretty legitimate concerns that we're seeing throughout our community,” Nuttall said ahead of sending the letter. “The idea that there would be a time in society where we're going to put the priorities of traumatized adults over the innocence of a child, to be able to play in a park or a family, to be able to walk through a park;  that's not an idea that I think I can live with anymore.”

Invoking the notwithstanding clause, or Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, would prevent a court from stepping in. It has rarely been used.

Nuttall says is expects there to be pushback should the clause be used but says action must be taken.

“We know there's going to be blowback. It's already started,” Nuttall said. “We've seen it on social media for weeks. But the reality is we're also facing from moms who want their kids to be able to go down a slide without landing on a needle from people who want to be able to live in their houses.”

 

Affordable Housing Plans

The City is taking other steps to tackle the housing shortage, including pouring upwards of $10 million into creating affordable housing.

A new staff memo revealed the funding invested in the new Housing Community Improvement Plan’s per-door grant program would be split between six developments, three for-profit and three not-for-profit.

“These are decisions that are not made by politicians, that aren't made by a council. These are made by an independent panel,” Nuttall said.

The grant is targeted to projects aimed at affordable housing and purpose-built rentals.

Around $6.7 million will be put towards helping to get a largely stalled development on Grove Street off the ground. The 271-unit, 25-storey purpose-built rental apartment building includes 32 affordable housing units.

“Finally, we’re going to be able to see what had been committed to a very long time ago come to fruition,” the mayor said.

• Download the CTV News app to get local alerts on your device 
• Get the latest local updates sent to your email inbox