BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Nuttall among mayors calling on Ford to use notwithstanding clause to handle encampments,' published Oct. 31.
This week, a group of mayors – including Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall and former Barrie councillor and MP Patrick Brown – wrote a letter to Premier Doug Ford asking for “provincial action to help municipalities with issues related to mental health, addiction and homeless encampments.”
On the face of it, that seems like a reasonable request. After all, the province has been doing a miserable job helping people experiencing mental health issues, addiction and homelessness. They need to do a lot more. So, what’s the harm in asking, right?
If only these mayors were actually asking for help for people and not just themselves. Sadly, Mayor Nuttall and the rest of this rogue group are only looking to get tough on people who form encampment communities in the absence of adequate housing options.
They want mandatory mental health care and rehabilitation, an amendment to the Trespass to Property Act so penalties can be toughened, and ways for police to go after public substance use, among other things. You know, tough on crime (and people) stuff.
In true amateurish style, they even reference a U.S. court decision in the letter, as if policy in our country has anything to do with judicial decisions elsewhere.
What might be the most egregious part of the letter, though, is the mayors advocating for the use of the notwithstanding clause to overrule the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This is political cowardice and, quite frankly, ignorant policy.
The Charter is a cornerstone upon which other rights in our country come from. It’s not to be used to punish people or push a certain ideology. Using the notwithstanding clause to attack people in our community would set a dangerous precedent that everyone – regardless of their opinion of encampments – should be horrified to see.
Why don’t the mayors ask for more money to be spent on social services? Why not ask for more housing – including social housing – to be built? Why not ask for more temporary shelters? Why not ask for better harm-reduction policies so people can stay alive?
People, generally, don’t choose to live in encampments. There are a number of reasons why they do, including safety and a lack of shelter or housing.
But what we do know for sure is that mayors have chosen to underfund key programs, have chosen to focus on irresponsible zero-tax increase policies, and have chosen to give the police more money, year after year.
Barrie police say they now need more than $71 million a year to operate. Imagine what good could be done by transferring even some of that money toward services and supports that will improve people’s lives?
Mayors need to be advocates for their communities. They need to be pressing the provincial and federal governments to do more. But they need to make sure that the focus of their demands are the people they serve, not the ideology they believe in.
Building community demands at least that.
Michael Speers
Barrie
