Ford defends circumventing housing requirement for encampment evictions

Ontarians have Premier Doug Ford's word that even if he lets municipalities evict people from homeless encampments despite having nowhere else for them to go, the province "won't be sending them to the mental hospitals against their will."

The premier was responding to a question on Tuesday about his stated desire to invoke the notwithstanding clause to circumvent a 2023 Ontario Superior Court decision that forbids municipalities from evicting people living in homeless encampments when there are not enough local shelter beds or other forms of housing available for them.

Fifteen mayors, so far, have asked the province to do so. The mayors also asked the Progressive Conservative government to use the notwithstanding clause to allow for increased involuntary health treatment of encampment residents and other Ontarians with severe addiction or mental illness.

When pressed about where he expects encampment dwellers to go without other available housing options, and whether they might be sent to involuntary care, Ford said they would not be committed to health-care facilities. "We are going to make sure we find proper shelter for these people," the premier insisted. 

"We're funding homeless like this government, this province has never seen before," Ford said at an unrelated press conference in Oro-Medonte on Tuesday. His office would not confirm whether Ford's assurance means the province will reject the call for increased involuntary treatment.

The premier also suggested the courts are giving too much importance to the rights of encampment dwellers, and not enough to the "rights of property owners."

"When, all of a sudden, a camp falls in place right outside of the judge's house. You'll see how quickly people change their minds on that," Ford predicted.

"If it's not in their backyard, they don't worry about it." 

Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett said the 2023 court decision has left some municipalities "caught in a trap" because they don't have the resources or jurisdiction to meet the court's requirements before being able to disband encampments.

"As lower-tier municipalities, we do not provide housing," Liggett told The Trillium earlier this month. "So we are being held ransom by the encampments without being able to provide housing."  

More municipalities are considering whether to join the call for use of the notwithstanding clause as well.  

On Wednesday, Hamilton city council will consider a motion from Coun. Matt Frances to "formally request that the province consider any tools available to ... not permit encampments in parks and public spaces, including but not limited to the use of the notwithstanding clause."

Another Hamilton councillor, John-Paul Danko, blamed "encampment supporters" arguing on social media, saying they've "left Ontario municipalities little choice to ensure resident's rights are respected."

The Community Legal Clinic for York Region issued a statement this week noting that “Canadian law states that cities are free to evict encampment residents at any time, provided they first offer the evictee truly accessible accommodation," and suggested that Ford and "his mayors" are exploiting the encampment issue for political gain.

“The premier may have polling to suggest that ‘cracking down’ on homeless Ontarians will be a popular issue in the upcoming election if they can be sufficiently vilified. His mayors may also seek to benefit from this approach. It will, of course, cause immense suffering to Ontario’s most fragile citizens this winter,” reads the statement.

“Threatening to invoke the clause is evidently intended to pander and inflame uninformed, angry NIMBYism and distract from the failure of the premier and his mayors to create a workable plan to reduce homelessness.”

Ford is still leaving the door open to having the issue resolved in the courts, rather than using the notwithstanding clause.

The municipality involved in the 2023 court case, the Region of Waterloo, chose not to appeal the decision, but Ford told reporters that Waterloo is rethinking that decision.

"I talked to the regional chair Karen Redman [on Monday] regarding that, and I believe they're going to challenge it one more time in the courts," said Ford.  

The Trillium reached out to Redman's office for confirmation but did not receive a response before publication.

Ford also said the province will "support any municipality that goes to court" to challenge the decision.