2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Kristin Rushowy)
Urban mayors grappling with homelessness and encampments need to show “backbone” and toughen up their push for stronger reforms, Premier Doug Ford says. “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 the use of the notwithstanding clause or something like that” so reforms can’t be overturned by the courts, Ford said Tuesday. “That’s what they should be doing, rather than just 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.
” Ford — referring to a in which a judge ruled that it’s a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for a municipality to evict those in encampments if there are no shelter spaces available for them — said if the mayors of the province’s biggest cities “want something done, they have to put it in writing to us to make sure that they’re 100 per cent behind us. You can’t put your butt on both sides of the fence.” The charter’s allows a government to pass legislation that overrides certain rights.
, representing 29 of the province’s largest communities, met recently in Markham and urged both the provincial and federal governments to “step up and take action now on the mental health, addictions and homeless crisis” they all face, and in particular to fund and build shelters and supportive housing. They also want a review of the Mental Health and the Health Care Consent acts, and a ban on the public use of illegal drugs, among other measures. Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, chair of Ontario Big City Mayors, said leaders have sent multiple written requests to the government about addressing the crisis, in particular asking for “one point person, a specific minister or ministry, in charge of solving this” and a province-wide plan.
While municipal leaders discussed requesting the province enact new legislation using the notwithstanding clause, they could not reach consensus, she added. However, “we’ve been very specific in what we, as a caucus, believe is going to achieve the best results for our community — and the premier has received all of that in writing ..
. and if he is of the opinion that the notwithstanding clause is the right way to go, he has every opportunity to implement that,” she said. “We have put into our request what we think are the best outcomes.
” She said the “issue becomes, if you are using the notwithstanding clause to close down encampments, but people have nowhere to go, we’re no farther ahead.” Answering questions after making an unrelated announcement in Scarborough on Tuesday morning, Ford said he receives “endless calls about people camping out in the parks, needles being all over the park.” Parents, he added, are “scared to put their kids out in the park by themselves, no matter what age, and we have to make a move.
But big city mayors, you want to get it done? I need that letter.” NDP Leader Marit Stiles, however, accused Ford of taking “cheap shots.” “He never, ever takes true responsibility or accountability,” she told reporters at Queen’s Park.
“The mess that we are experiencing right now, it has happened under his watch. He is responsible. He is the premier of this province and he has not done his job.
”.
