Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett says Ontario Premier Doug Ford has no choice but to use the notwithstanding clause if he wants to help municipalities solve the problem of homeless encampments. -shelter.

Liggett was one of 13 Ontario city mayors who wrote to the Prime Minister on October 31 asking him to use the notwithstanding clause to overturn a court ruling preventing municipalities from cleaning out homeless encampments if their shelters are full.

“I view the notwithstanding clause as part of the original motion where we’re asking for all the other things — they all go together,” Liggett said on the CBC Radio show. The morning edition.

“But I don’t think the prime minister can help us with the encampments unless he uses the notwithstanding clause.”

The derogation clause is necessary due to decision in January 2023 from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Justice MJ Valente ruled that the Region of Waterloo could not use a municipal bylaw to evict people living in an encampment in Kitchener because the bylaw was found to violate section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The judge said the lack of accommodation meant the settlement violated Charter rights.

The mayors want the province to use the notwithstanding clause to intervene in legal proceedings that would prevent municipalities from evicting encampments.

Mayors’ request is ‘blatant’, harm reduction officer says

Diana Chan McNally, a harm reduction worker in Toronto, said mayors want decisions like Valente’s to “mean nothing anymore, that is, they want to absolve themselves of their own responsibility.” on homelessness, to provide things like shelter, affordable housing, services for the homeless automatically when encampments are cleared.”

McNally called the mayors’ request “egregious.”

According to McNally, the reason for the Ontario Superior Court’s January 2023 decision “is that we understood that eviction from a homeless encampment violated people’s right to life.” fundamental Charter right, the right to life, just so we can move people forward without having to provide resources. »

McNally said mayors and other elected officials have a responsibility to solve the housing crisis.

“That’s why we elect our public servants, including the Prime Minister. What I don’t want to see is us starting to take away people’s essential Charter rights because we don’t want to actually solve the housing crisis for those most affected by it,” she said.

“I wonder what’s the point of evicting people if you have nowhere to go. They’ll just end up in another park and that doesn’t really solve the problem.”

Meanwhile, Liggett said the mayors also used their letter to call for “supportive housing funds” and “community mental health care,” which would also encompass the Mental Health Consent Act .

“A lot of this is happening because the Mental Health Consent Act was passed so long ago that they didn’t anticipate it,” she said.

“It’s the same with the escape clause. When it was introduced, people weren’t thinking about the crisis we find ourselves in today, but the prime ministers of the time… insisted that it be part of it.”

“We are paralyzed right now”: Liggett

According to Liggett, under the current encampment management system, the City of Cambridge sends out outreach workers and bylaw officers who work with people and try to provide them with whatever assistance and assistance they need. need.

“But a lot of them have no desire to leave these encampments, so it’s not so much these types of people that are in the encampments that we really need to help drastically,” she said .

“Among all these camps, there are also criminals who attack other people in the camps, neighboring communities.”

Liggett said she would like to see the province allocate money in the budget to help big city mayors manage the encampments.

“We are paralyzed right now. We have municipalities that cannot go to court because everyone is afraid to spend money. They are afraid of losing and this will add one more to the list of municipalities that have lost in court,” she said.

“So by asking the province to support us, put the money and the legal expertise behind us and, if necessary, use the notwithstanding clause, we are saying that if necessary, use it, but come to our help in advance. us the funds in advance before going this route.

Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie also spoke about his decision to join his fellow mayors of Ontario’s big cities “in calling on the province for stronger action to combat the ongoing mental health and addiction crisis that harms our communities.”

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Guthrie said “our public spaces should be safe and welcome for all.”

The letter was signed by Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, Brantford Mayor Ken Davis, Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett, Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff, Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster, Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie, Oakville Mayor Rob Burton and Oshawa Mayor Dan. Carter, Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe, St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe, Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre and Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens.