City councils should have the authority to take down homeless encampments without facing legal repercussions, believes Mayor Cam Guthrie.
On Thursday, he joined a chorus of Ontario mayors calling on the provincial government to protect municipalities that remove encampments from court challenges under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by using the notwithstanding clause to shield them.
“My job as the mayor is to try to keep our community a safe and welcoming place for everyone,” he told GuelphToday about his decision to sign the letter. “It is time for us to have the ability at the local level to have our municipal bylaws upheld and recognized for the bylaws that they are, that does provide the empathy and compassion alongside the balance of public order.”
The letter requests that the provincial government intervene in any court case that “restricts the ability of municipalities to regulate and prohibit encampments,” stating “courts should not be dictating homelessness policy.”
An example of that being the 2023 Ontario Superior Court decision that forbade the Region of Waterloo from evicting residents of a homeless encampment after determining the municipal bylaw violated the inhabitants' Charter rights to life and security of the person.
Guelph council passed its own bylaw to restrict encampment locations in August. It came into effect on Oct. 1 and the first batch of violation notices were handed out earlier this week with a Nov. 13 deadline.
In addition to Guthrie, the letter is signed by the mayors of Barrie, Brampton, Brantford, Cambridge, Oakville, Oshawa, Pickering, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Windsor and others.
“Many mayors, both large, medium and small across the province, are wanting to make sure that the government knows that we are in favour of (the notwithstanding clause) being used,” Guthrie said.
The mayors’ letter further calls on the provincial government to establish a drug diversion court Ontario-wide to “ensure the necessary resources to allow a meaningful focus on rehabilitation as opposed to incarceration.”
Along with that comes a request to strengthen the existing system of mandatory community-based and residential mental health care.
“The drugs of today are not the drugs of even five years ago – the toxicity, the consequences and the results of behavioural issues … requires us to fight like hell to be able to save these individuals,” said Guthrie.
“We have to think differently to save people's lives. And the people I hear from the most are parents and families that are begging elected officials to save their son to save their daughter from slowly dying.
“I will not stand by anymore. As a father myself ... I would want every tool to be able to save my child,” he continued. “We have to have interventions for the reality of the drugs of today. …They require a new way of handling them and it's time the government really thinks very seriously about the involuntary treatment position so that we can save more lives.”
Such a system would require additional funding for treatment services, said Guthrie, who acknowledged there’s not enough treatment space for willing participants at this time, let alone those who are forced to attend.
Additionally, the mayors’ letter asked the provincial government to amend the Trespass to Property Act to include potential jail time for repeat offenders and to specifically allow police to arrest anyone who repeatedly trespasses after having been by police not to.
Lastly, the mayors want the province to enact legislation clearly prohibiting open and public drug use in the same way that open alcohol consumption is illegal.
Each of the mayors’ requested provincial actions were proposed earlier this month in a motion considered by the Ontario Big City Mayors group.
That original motion did not pass. Instead, the 29 big city mayors decided to tone down the wording and remove all mention of the notwithstanding clause and didn’t include a call for mandatory treatment programs.
In response, Premiere Doug Ford urged the mayors to “have the backbone” to put their wishes in writing.
"I have an idea: why don't the big city mayors actually put in writing that they want the province to change the homeless program, make sure that we move the homeless along, and why don't they put in, 'Use the notwithstanding clause,' or something like that," Ford said during a news conference on Tuesday.
"That's what they should be doing. Rather than just kind of going up to the edge. Let's see if they have the backbone to do it if they really want the homeless situation to improve."
– with files from Alan S. Hale of The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park
