With an unprecedented number of people living in encampments, experiencing addiction and mental health issues, and dying in the streets, there’s a renewed call for the provincial and federal governments to take coordinated and comprehensive action.
That call came Thursday morning from the Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) group, which includes Guelph’s Cam Guthrie, who participated in the media event held at Queen’s Park.
“There is a humanitarian crisis happening on our streets, people are dying and something needs to be done,” said Marianne Meed Ward, chair of OBCM and mayor of Burlington, in announcing the group’s ‘Solve the Crisis’ campaign. “This cannot wait, we must work together to solve this crisis now.”
Alongside the Ontario chair of the Canadian Mental Health Association and CEO of the Ontario BIA Association, OBCM wants the province to strike a task force including healthcare workers and first responders as well as representatives from municipalities, community services and the business community to create an action plan.
The OBCM first made that request two years ago, but it has not been acted upon.
There are about 1,400 encampments throughout the province, according to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.
The mayors’ group further called on the province to fund 24/7 crisis centres aimed at relieving pressure on emergency centres and first responders, as well as appoint a minister and ministry with “appropriate funding and powers” to address the full spectrum of housing needs, including mental health, addictions and wrap-around supports.
“This is a growing crisis,” Guthrie said during the announcement, noting the current “piecemeal-type of funding” for individual projects in specific communities doesn’t appropriately address the problems, isn’t sustainable and doesn’t provide the stability municipalities need to plan and allocate funding to provide what help they can to people in need.
“We don’t want to be here. We shouldn’t have to be here,” he added of making the renewed call for action. “People need help.”
Like the other big city mayors, Guthrie wants to see municipalities provided with the tools and resources needed to help people transition from living in encampments.
As it stands, he said mental health and addiction issues are hurting the community and business sector, including small businesses like many of those seen in downtown areas.
“This is not what our downtowns need,” said Guthrie, who is OBCM’s past chair.
Though no specific dollar figures were mentioned, Meed Ward stated spending on those services will dramatically decrease the added strain currently placed on law enforcement and the healthcare system.
She pointed to municipally-led projects such as ones undertaken in London which have seen sharp decreases in the number of repeated police interactions and hospital visits in specific cases.
Though echoing comments about the inadequate nature of the current provincial government approach, she repeatedly thanked the provincial government for the funding it’s provided for specific efforts in individual communities during recent months.
Asked why the federal government is included in the call for action, Meed Ward noted it’s a nation-wide issue but didn’t offer specific national actions she’d like to see taken.
