Ford pledges tough new legislation to dismantle homeless encampments

Legislation aimed at dismantling homeless encampments in Ontario will soon be introduced, Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday, along with a pledge to use the notwithstanding clause if the courts "interfere."

Ford wrote to 12 mayors who asked him for tougher laws on encampments, saying the province will provide the tools to help municipalities clear the sites and crack down on public drug use.

"Our government shares your concerns about the need to keep our children, families and communities safe," Ford wrote to the mayors of Barrie, Windsor, Oshawa and other cities.

"That's why we are acting to put an end to the public disorder, drug use and trafficking and loss of public space that have resulted from the widespread growth in encampments."

Homelessness and encampments have risen dramatically under Ford's term, with tent cities popping up in municipalities small and large throughout Ontario. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario says there were 1,400 encampments across the province in 2023.

Shelters throughout the province are full, with some 12,000 people in Toronto's shelter system alone.

The mayors asked Ford to strengthen involuntary addiction treatment laws and have the province become an intervener in court cases where municipalities are looking to clear encampments.

They also asked for trespass laws to be strengthened to allow for arrests and jail time for those who repeatedly trespass, as well as legislation to prohibit open drug use, similar to the ban on the open consumption of alcohol.

The mayors also asked Ford to "use the notwithstanding clause to ensure these measures are implemented in a timely and effective way."

In response, Ford promised more accountability for shelter service managers and more funding to increase shelter space.

Ford said the new legislation will be "explicitly and unequivocally prohibiting the use of illicit drugs in public, with new tools and authorities to help police enforce this prohibition."

There will be more penalties for those who "deliberately and continually break the law," plus new "approaches to treatment and rehabilitation," he wrote.

Ford added that he does not expect to use the controversial legislative tool known as the notwithstanding clause that would override the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"However, should the courts interfere with our shared goal of effectively addressing and clearing out encampments using these enhanced tools, with your support, our government is fully prepared to use the notwithstanding clause," Ford wrote.

"This includes the province becoming an intervener in any court case that restricts the ability of municipalities to regulate and prohibit encampments, so long as the approach you pursue is aligned with provincial best practices."

In January 2023, an Ontario Superior Court justice ruled that Waterloo Region could not use a municipal bylaw to evict people living in an encampment in Kitchener because that bylaw was deemed to be in violation of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The judge said a lack of shelter spaces means the bylaw infringed upon Charter rights.

Ford's new measures will do little to help the encampment issue because there's nowhere for people to go, said Lorraine Lam, an outreach worker in Toronto.

"He's not actually fixing the problem of homelessness, he's actually just fixing the problem in terms of making people invisible," she said.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said people who are homeless will continue to move from encampment to encampment as long as there are inadequate levels of housing and supports for them.

"We should be working, as I know most municipalities are doing right now, to try to make sure that people can be moved into shelters and homes," she said.

"That is the solution to the encampments. And right now, what are you going to do, move them on to another park? The truth is, we have to have a place for people to live, a shelter for them to stay in, and unless we have that, this is going to continue."

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said Ford has had six years as premier to build enough housing. Schreiner said he believes Ford is acting on the issue now because he is considering calling an early election.

"I think the premier is scrambling because he's feeling pressure from voters," Schreiner said. "The premier, almost every action he's taking right now, is not about what's good for the people of Ontario, it's what's good for Doug Ford's personal political needs."

Mayor encouraged by Ford's response

Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall said he is encouraged by Ford's letter, but noted there will be a lot of work to do going forward.

"I'll be happy when we can provide all the services on the ground to help individuals who are looking for it," he said.

"I'll be happy when families can start to use parks again in a way where they don't feel like there are concerns with relation to their kids going on a slide and falling on a needle or finding weapons inside of parks."

When asked what level of force he was prepared to accept to remove encampments from parks, Nuttall said thankfully the situation has not come to that point yet, but he would look to provincial and federal standards to act in a "thoughtful and cautious manner."

Local officials already work with people in encampments to offer them services and housing, he said.

"It's not a one-night problem," Nuttall said.

"We had an individual in Brock Park in the city of Barrie. That individual was told the police would be coming and dealing with this if he wasn't going to accept the housing and accept the offers that were being made to him, and that individual moved on."

Nuttall said he did not know where the man went.

Province shifting approach to homelessness, addiction

The province has made a fundamental shift in recent months in its approach to homelessness and addiction.

It is shuttering 10 supervised consumption sites because of their proximity to schools and daycares and is also banning the opening of new ones.

In their place, the government is launching 19 new "homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs," plus 375 highly supportive housing units at a planned cost of $378 million.

In her annual report released this week, Auditor General Shelley Spence said the province's decision to close the supervised consumption sites was made "without proper planning." She also found the government has no strategy in place to mitigate an "increased risk of overdoses" likely to put a further burden on overcrowded emergency rooms.

The province is shifting to an abstinence-based model as it moves away from harm reduction. Health officials, advocates and homeless people say the move will cost lives. Health Minister Sylvia Jones has previously said no one will die as a result of the change.

There are a total of 2,108 community addiction treatment beds across the province as of August 2024, Jones's office said. The Ford government has added 500 treatment beds since it came to power in 2018.

Doctors, nurses and front-line workers say accessing treatment beds is nearly impossible as demand far outstrips the number of available spots.

Toronto saw several large encampments pop up in parks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under former mayor John Tory, Toronto police cracked down hard, with a series of raids in four parks throughout the summer of 2021.