By Pam Wright
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
When it comes to using the non-withstanding clause to deal with homeless encampments, Mayor Darrin Canniff said it’s just another tool in the toolkit.
His comments came in response to questions from Chatham Coun. Alysson Storey at the Nov. 4 council meeting as to why he signed a letter to Premier Doug Ford asking for the ability to use the clause when dealing with the homeless issue. Canniff was one of 13 mayors in the province to put their names on the letter.
“We need to provide more tools for us,” the mayor replied, noting the clause could provide a mechanism to relocate encampments if need be.
“We wouldn’t have to do it…this is a tool,” he told The Voice, but noted the decision to use the clause would rest with council.
According to previously published reports, the letter was signed by 13 Ontario mayors representing municipalities with more than 100,000 residents. There are 29 member municipalities within the Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) group.
Some said it was written as a response to recent comments by Ford asking the big city mayors if they had the “backbone” to dismantle encampments using the notwithstanding clause, which would allow the law to override certain portions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Following a court decision in Waterloo in 2023, using the notwithstanding clause is required due to an Ontario Superior Court ruling that determines Waterloo Region could not use a municipal bylaw to evict anyone living in encampments on public property as it would deprive these residents of their Charter-protected right to life.
Storey said she wanted clarification.
“It seemed to contradict some of the work the big city mayor caucus is doing,” Storey said of the letter, adding it didn’t align with her understanding of the local encampment strategy.
“Where it gets confusing and a little concerning is the notwithstanding clause is essentially a nuclear option for something like this and it really risks criminalizing homelessness and stripping human rights away from some of the most vulnerable citizens,” Storey said.
“I appreciate that you signed it on your own, but you are the mayor of our community,” she said to Canniff, noting she would not support using the notwithstanding clause in this context.
“Our name is on that letter and it implies that our community and our council support taking away the human rights of others.”
Canniff stressed he signed the letter on his own and the signature didn’t represent the whole of council, noting the OBCM caucus had a six-hour meeting prior to composing the letter.
Canniff emphasized municipalities need support.
“Ultimately, the province and the feds need to step up,” he said. “We’ve talked about this time and time again. They downloaded all this on the municipality and they said ‘here you go, deal with it.’”
In a related matter, Chatham Coun. Brock McGregor brought forward a notice of motion that, if approved, would see Chatham-Kent approach the federal minister of housing to try and access funding for housing supports.
According to McGregor, the Trudeau government earmarked $250 million in the 2024 federal budget to address encampment and homelessness issues.
Currently, he said, the money is unavailable to Ontario due to a lack of co-operation between the Ford government and the Trudeau government. Ontario is one of three provinces who refused to sign on for the funding.
However, the minister has said the government is open to hearing from individual municipalities to work around the issue.
McGregor said it’s important to say why the municipality is in the encampment predicament.
“Social supports and services are inadequate to keep people housed in Ontario right now,” he said. “There’s a growing homeless population and this will get worse in our community.”
