Cambridge mayor calls on province to do more to help municipalities handle mental health and addictions crisis

There are 444 municipalities in Ontario and Cambridge's mayor says every single one of them is facing a crisis when it comes to mental health and addictions.

That's why at this week's Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa, Mayor Jan Liggett will be armed with results of a recent poll that found those surveyed want to see the province create a dedicated stream of revenue to create and enhance services.

"This poll captures what every government needs to know when allocating funds," Liggett told CBC News in a phone interview on Friday. 

"No matter what level of government you are, what party you are part of, this poll tells them how to allocate the funds on how do we help in the best possible way," she added.

"I think this is the only way as leaders we can change that catastrophic future of our current path that we're on."

Liggett commissioned a provincial poll through the firm Campaign Research. The survey was of 2,027 Ontario residents who are members of data company Maru Blue's online panel and it was conducted online on July 30 and 31. 

The people who responded were eligible to vote and the sample was weighted for region, age and gender. The poll itself did not have a margin of error, but Campaign Research says a probability sample of a similar size would have a margin of error of two per cent 19 times out of 20.

When asked about barriers people might face, the respondents said availability of services (54 per cent) and cost (45 per cent) were contributing factors.

Liggett said almost half of the people who took the survey (45 per cent) believed the government should spend more money on mental health and addiction.

When asked how the government should do that, 59 per cent said existing funding should be reallocated, 48 per cent said public and private partnerships should be created and 44 per cent said there should be private donations and grants.

'Greatest calamity of our time'

Liggett sent the results of the poll to municipal leaders across the province on Friday. In the letter to other municipalities, Liggett wrote that the mental health and addictions crisis "is the greatest calamity of our time. This crisis has leached into the very fabric of our lives."

Liggett told CBC News the city has hired companies to clean up areas, including encampments, where drug use has taken place.

"That's $1 million out of our funding, our budget, that should be going to things like our arenas or fixing streets or getting caught up on our infrastructure deficit," she said.

If other levels of government don't step in, Liggett warns they'll have to increase taxes.

The provincial and federal governments "are the two levels of government who should be solving this or at least be on the road to solve this," she said.

Municipal leaders call for help

Liggett's poll comes after Ontario Big City Mayors launched a campaign earlier this month called Solve The Crisis.

That campaign notes there are an "unprecedented number of Ontarians" who are homeless and living in unsafe spaces.

Marianne Meed Ward, who is mayor of Burlington and who chairs the Ontario's Big City Mayors, said in a release that it's a "humanitarian crisis happening on our streets, people are dying and something needs to be done."

"Municipalities cannot tackle this crisis alone," Meed Ward said.

"We need the province, along with all levels of government and community partners, to implement the programs that have proven to be effective. This cannot wait, we must work together to solve this crisis now."   

In her own statement this month, Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe said the city is doing everything it can to address the issue, but more help is needed.

"There are people in our community who need support, including a vastly underestimated number of women, girls and gender diverse peoples experiencing homelessness," McCabe said.

"We urgently need the provincial and federal governments to provide the resources required for this united effort."