Guelph mayor proposes tax for homelessness, mental health supports, blaming lack of provincial funds

Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie is proposing a new tax, which would offer support for addiction, homelessness and mental health. 

Guthrie says he brought forward the proposal because the province isn't providing the funding that they should to deal with such issues.

"Instead of ignoring the issue, I'm presenting an option to our community," said Guthrie.

"As we continue to advocate for the full allotment from the province, should we also look to step up a little bit to start helping even though we fully recognize that it isn't our jurisdiction.

In Guelph-Wellington, there were at least 270 people experiencing homelessness as of Oct. 2021, according to a survey done by the county and the Guelph-Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination. 

"The problem that we have is do we continue and continue and continue to try to advocate where it has not gotten us anywhere in the past, or do we actually start to take some action locally because it's so difficult to look at people that are in these vulnerable situations." Guthrie said.

"Including some of them are unfortunately passing away—people are dying for some of these issues and we cannot wait around any longer." 

If approved at next Wednesday's budget meeting, the one to two per cent tax would also be used to support provincial housing legislation like Bill-23 (the More Homes Built Faster Act), and to renovate or build hospitals, Guthrie said.

He's calling the potential tax the "Provincial Impact Local Levy," and said that it would amount to $3 to $5 per month for Guelph residents. 

Mixed reactions

Guthrie told CBC's Craig Norris that following the announcement of the potential tax, support for it "varied."

"It is a mix," he said. "It's a balanced mix. I would say 60 per cent are saying, 'Yes, do it.' I would say maybe 40 per cent are saying, 'No, don't do it.' But in that 40 per cent, I'll have to say that some of the responses I'm getting are very negative towards just homelessness issues in general."

He said that he doesn't take some of the inappropriate feedback regarding people experiencing homelessness seriously. 

"But some people are just saying, 'Look, with inflation, potential recession, utility costs going up, I can't even swing an extra $3 to $5 a month, and so they don't want it and I can respect that."

In support of the levy is Helen Fishburn, the CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Waterloo-Wellington.

"I was really thrilled actually to see a bold and courageous move to support the needs of residents of the City of Guelph," said Fishburn.

"We really can't afford not to do anything. My hope is that people would really understand the importance of the need to respond to people, but also the cost of not doing anything because this is literally a life and death issue."

The province's investment

Melissa Diakoumeas, a spokesperson for the Ontario ministry of municipal affairs and housing, said in an email statement that the province has already offered nearly $12.4 million to Wellington County "to improve housing and homeless shelter solutions, and support vulnerable people."

She pointed to other funding too.

"In 2022, the province launched the new homelessness prevention program (HPP), which invests an additional $25 million in new annual funding," said Diakoumeas.

"This brings Ontario's total annual investment in programs to prevent homelessness to almost half a billion dollars, and the County of Wellington has been allocated $4,878,400 [for 2022 to 23], an increase of almost $294,000 from [2021 to 2022]."