An emergency order signed last night by Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman extends the time allowed for people sleeping at Milligan’s Pond from 24 hours to 15 days.
Because of the delegated authority under the current state of emergency, Lehman was able to change the bylaw so complaints didn’t have to be enforced in 24 hours.
Lehman told BarrieToday that, despite what some may think, tent cities are not going to become the norm in Barrie.
“No, this is not to permit a tent city,” the mayor said. “This is to give our enforcement agencies and our social services time to get together and enforce the bylaws compassionately and help out the people who are at Milligan’s Pond.”
Currently, if bylaw officers attend Milligan’s Pond, located near Anne and Dunlop streets, and find someone sleeping there, they give the person 24 hours to leave.
This new order now provides up to 15 days, but Lehman said it won’t take that long.
“It is Milligan’s Pond only and, to be clear, we are not going to wait 15 days. The whole point of this was to give a few days of extra time for the necessary services to plan how to deal with the situation,” said Lehman.
Lehman admitted it was a tough call, as there may be blowback, but said he's comfortable in his decision to make the change knowing it will take the stress off bylaw officers and emergency services during the current health crisis.
“Because bylaw complaints have to be actioned within a very short period of time, there wasn’t enough time to properly assist and enforce the bylaws in Milligan’s Pond," he said. "I amended the bylaw to give our services and the outreach workers the time to do that.”
The mayor told BarrieToday he was not ignoring the issues with the park area and knows they need to be addressed.
“In my view, the situation at the pond cannot continue. There are public health considerations associated with this, related to COVID and related to other things like needles,” said Lehman.
Lehman said the order was in response to the current COVID-19 crisis and is not something that will be ongoing.
“There are people who are sleeping rough and have medical problems. Right now, they’re getting some help from the outreach workers and there are those who are suffering with mental-health problems and a lot of the support that would normally exist for those folks are not able to serve people because of COVID-19,” he said.
