Ford pledges tough new legislation to dismantle homeless encampments

The Ontario government plans to crack down on homeless encampments through new legislation and Premier Doug Ford pledged Thursday to use the notwithstanding clause if necessary.

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.

Homelessness and encampments have risen dramatically under Ford’s term, with tent cities popping up in municipalities small and large throughout Ontario. Shelters throughout the province are full, with some 12,000 people in Toronto’s shelter system alone.

“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.”

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The 12 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.”

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.

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.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2024.

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