Stiffer penalties for trespassing, public drug use in Ontario bill aimed at ending encampments
Ontario premier has said he is willing to use notwithstanding clause to enact new legislation
Premier Doug Ford's government is introducing new legislation that it says will give municipalities and police services legal tools to dismantle homeless encampments and crack down on public drug use with fines or jail time.
"These encampments are taking over public spaces, with illegal drug use happening out in the open, creating huge safety risks for people and communities," Ford said. "Enough is enough, this has to stop and it will stop."
Ford announced the pending legislation at a news conference Thursday morning, the last day the legislature will sit before leaving for winter break until March 3. It comes as Ontario has seen a dramatic rise in homelessness and encampments during Ford's tenure, with tent cities popping up in municipalities small and large throughout Ontario.
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario says there were 1,400 encampments across the province in 2023. Shelters throughout the province are also full, with some 12,000 people in Toronto's shelter system alone.
The new bill will include two amendments to the existing Trespass to Property Act that the province says will stop encampments from re-emerging once they are cleared. The amendments would give courts the power to consider repeat offences and the likelihood to re-offend against the act as aggravating factors in sentencing.
Attorney General Doug Downey said the amendments would not change any of the existing penalties in the act.
The legislation would also allow police and provincial offences officers to ticket or arrest people using illegal drugs in public, with penalties of up to $10,000 or six months in jail.
"The people using illicit drugs in parks, we will make sure that they are going to be treated appropriately, but that's up to the police and the courts to decide," Ford said
The government said it is considering allowing the courts to provide rehabilitation as an alternative to incarceration for minor or non-violent drug crimes, and Ford said he is not considering involuntary treatment at this time.
Ford previously said he was willing to use the controversial legislative tool known as the notwithstanding clause to override the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms "should the courts interfere" in municipalities using the new provisions.
The premier also announced an additional $75.5 million Thursday toward homelessness prevention programs, including $50 million for affordable housing, $20 million to expand shelter capacity and $5.5 million to top up the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit so as to immediately free up emergency shelter spaces.
That is in addition to nearly $700 million annually the province says it puts toward homelessness prevention programs and a recently announced $378 million to create 19 homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs, with up to 375 supportive housing units. Those hubs are being established in place of 10 supervised drug consumption sites the province intends to shut down in the spring.
Organizations and municipal entities that receive funding will be required to submit spending plans to the province for review and approval, Ford said.
The measure will ensure funding is spent "in line with the shared provincial and municipal goal of ending encampments by providing safe and stable housing for people at risk of homelessness," the government said in a news release.
The legislation announced Thursday comes after public request from more than a dozen Ontario mayors to strengthen involuntary addiction treatment laws and have the province become an intervener in court cases where municipalities are looking to clear encampments. They also asked for certain laws to be strengthened to allow for arrests and jail time for those who repeatedly trespass.
Those mayors and others were on hand for Ford's news conference.
Ford has failed on housing, opposition parties say
Opposition parties accused Ford and his government of failing to build new housing and aiding municipalities in expanding shelter space.
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie called the new bill "political grandstanding" by the government, with the legislature set to break until early March and a possible early election in the spring.
"If they were committed to doing something, anything, they would have done it before today," she told reporters at Queen's Park.
Crombie called the measures included in the bill "highly punitive" and said they amount to "criminalizing" homeless people.
"These are people, these are people's children ... I would like to see the plan of where we will house them, other than in our jails, and give them treatment they need," she said.
Meanwhile, NDP housing critic Jessica Bell said the Progressive Conservative government has had six years to address homelessness and are only doing so with an election likely on the horizon.
"We have over 1,400 encampments in cities and towns all over Ontario, and that is this government's legacy," she said.
"If someone has $10,000 to pay a fine, I doubt they are living in a park. It is cheaper to find a permanent home for someone than it is to send them to jail and it's a lot more effective in getting them to rebuild their lives," Bell said.
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the "solution to homelessness is housing, not jail."
"Does the Premier seriously think that fining someone $10,000 is going to solve any of the systemic problems Ontario is facing? All this legislation does is criminalize homelessness and addictions — it's going to make the problem worse, leading to more death and more suffering," he said.
Lorraine Lam, an organizer with the Shelter and Housing Justice Network, also said the province should give municipalities funding to build housing rather than dismantle encampments.
"Spending money on policing people and displacing people is not going to be the solution when there is nowhere for people to go," Lam said.
With files from Lucas Powers and The Canadian Press