Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to members of the media as mayors from selected municipalities and government ministers look on the Queen's Park Legislature in Toronto on Dec. 12.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Ontario is introducing legislation that would toughen the law on trespassing and threaten jail time for the public use of illegal drugs, while pledging to spend an additional $75.5-million on shelters and housing – all in the name of clearing out homeless encampments.
Addressing reporters near Queen’s Park, Premier Doug Ford was flanked by a group of 14 mayors who had asked him in a joint letter in October to go even further. The mayors had requested that Mr. Ford use the notwithstanding clause to suspend parts of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in order to strengthen existing powers to force people into treatment for addictions or mental illness.
Mr. Ford said on Thursday he did not intend to put more people into treatment against their will. But he had previously warned he could use the notwithstanding clause to deal with encampments if the changes he outlined faced a court challenge. His new measures, he said, would give municipalities and police additional tools to clear out encampments across the province, while getting more people into shelters and housing.
The legislation, if passed, would allow police or provincial offences officers to order someone to stop using an illegal drug in a public place, to leave or to identify themselves. The law would also allow officers to seize what they believe to be illegal drugs. Suspects could be arrested and would face fines up to $10,000 or six months in jail.
The government is also proposing amendments to the Trespass to Property Act, which already carries a maximum fine of $10,000 for offenders. The changes would require courts to consider two aggravating factors at sentencing: whether defendants had returned to a place that they had been ordered to leave, and whether they were likely to do so.
In a statement, Harini Sivalingam of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said the changes “will only criminalize unhoused people who have nowhere else to go.” She also said the group remains concerned about any potential future use of the notwithstanding clause. Opposition leaders at Queen’s Park have said the Progressive Conservative government should have ramped up housing and shelter spending long ago instead.
The bill was introduced just as the legislature was set to rise for a winter break scheduled to last until March 3, meaning it will not be passed for months.
Mr. Ford said last week he would act on some of the changes requested by more than a dozen mayors, including cracking down on repeat trespassers and banning public drug use. The mayors had broken with the larger, 29-member group representing the province’s largest cities, including Toronto, Mississauga and Ottawa, which had voted against asking the Premier to invoke the notwithstanding clause.
The new tougher measures also come with $75.5-million in additional money, on top of the $700-million the province now spends annually on shelters and homelessness – programs that are co-funded with municipalities, and to a lesser extent, Ottawa.
Of the new money, $31-million comes from an existing agreement with the federal government to fund housing. And the added cash is dwarfed by existing expenditures: Toronto spends more than $800-million on shelters and homelessness services a year and has about 12,000 people in its system, which is jammed to capacity, every day. Ontario says that local authorities across the province believe there are as many as 3,300 people living in about 1,000 encampments.
Municipalities and shelter-service providers will be expected to report back on how many people are moved from encampments. And Mr. Ford suggested in his remarks that Toronto, in particular, was not spending homelessness money wisely.
In an e-mailed statement, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said she welcomed any new funding but panned Mr. Ford’s legal changes and said more money for supportive housing and rent supplements is needed.
“We cannot arrest or jail our way out of the homelessness crisis,” the mayor said.
Speaking alongside Mr. Ford was Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter, who was among those who had called for the use of notwithstanding clause to strengthen provisions that allow for mandatory addictions treatment. He said he had not given up advocating for what he called “compassionate intervention.”