The Ford government’s planned legislation to remove homeless encampments in downtowns and enhance police powers on public drug use won’t be tabled until the end of the week and isn’t expected to pass into law until sometime in the new year.
On Thursday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced a plan for legislation designed to remove homeless encampments, offer new funding for municipalities to temporarily house people and create a new framework to arrest those taking drugs in public spaces.
The planned legislation isn’t going to use the controversial notwithstanding clause to sidestep Charter rights when it is originally tabled, the premier has said, but the government has suggested that could happen if it meets with resistance.
The legislation itself doesn’t look likely to be in place for months, with no plans to pass it into law before politicians take a two-month break from debate.
The premier’s office confirmed Monday the proposed legislation is currently set to be tabled on Thursday, the day MPPs rise and return to their ridings for the holidays. That means it won’t be debated and passed into law until at least the new year.
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The government has provided few details of what the proposed law will entail.
In the letter announcing the plan, Ford said it would ensure local housing service managers were more closely aligned with government priorities and promised more funding. It will also bring in new legal language banning public drug use and create new offences for people who “deliberately and continually break the law.”
It isn’t clear how much more funding will flow or what will happen in cities where mayors don’t support more forceful plans to remove encampments from parks.
The government has hinted it will take a hands-on approach to municipalities that don’t follow its lead.
“I just do not agree with those who believe that a park is a place where people with mental health and addictions are best served — a park is for kids,” Housing Minister Paul Calandra said.
“If service managers are incapable or unwilling to make the changes that are needed … to ensure that we deal with this situation in an effective manner then we’ll take further steps.”
Opposition critics have complained the legislation hasn’t been tabled so it can’t be scrutinized for details. Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said whatever the government puts on the table will be too little, too late.
“I’m going to wait to see this bill,” she told reporters on Monday.
“Once again, we’re seeing an 11th-hour attempt to come forward with something that (they) actually have no intention of passing. Nobody wants encampments in our communities but this is the legacy of Doug Ford… Ontarians know the solution isn’t to arrest people out of those parks, it’s to actually have shelters, have supports, have housing.”
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said the government wasn’t prepared and needed a short-term emergency plan to handle people displaced by encampment removals.
“It is not okay to clear people from the streets without somewhere to put them that is safe, where they’ll be getting the help and the treatment they need,” she said.
“It needs a coordinated strategy, not left up to the mayors of each municipality to deal with it on their own. Those are the discussions the mayors have when they come together: ‘How are you dealing with it?’ ‘What’s been working?’ ‘Have you built tiny homes?’ ‘Were you able to open your armouries, your community centres, church basements?’”
The legislature is set to rise on Thursday and is currently not scheduled to return until Feb. 18, meaning the legislation does not look likely to be passed until at least late February.
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