Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall is gearing up for encampment cleanups in his city after the PCs won re-election on Thursday on a platform that included giving municipalities more powers to handle the encampments.
While no specific timeline for the bill has been set, Nuttall expressed confidence that Premier Doug Ford’s government will act on it.
Ford even said during his victory speech last night that “the people had said yes” to “clean up our streets, crack down on crimes, end encampments and protect our schools.”
“My expectation is certainly that we continue down the road of being able to see the start of this legislation, get it through the house,” Nuttall told QP Briefing in an interview. “We’re already working on the ground with some of the dollars that have been passed on to us by the province to clean up after encampments.”
The city has received provincial funding earmarked for encampment cleanup, with spending tied to a deadline at the end of March. But Nuttall said that legislative measures are still needed before Barrie can fully address the issue.
While encampment cleanups are in the early stages, questions remain about where displaced individuals will go. The County of Simcoe, responsible for homelessness services in the region, is working on expanding shelter capacity to accommodate those affected.
“We have locations to increase capacity for shelter, to allow these folks not to be in encampments anymore,” Nuttall said, adding that structural details are still being finalized. He expects more announcements on the matter in the coming weeks.
Nuttall said that much of Barrie’s response hinges on the upcoming legislation from the provincial government.
While he has not yet received a concrete timeline from Queen’s Park on the passing of the Safer Municipalities Act, he remains hopeful that the Ford government will prioritize the issue.
“It was 12 hours ago that there was the call,” Nuttall noted, referencing the election results. “In the coming days and weeks, we’ll have more certainty and more light shed on what that looks like going forward.”
But Nuttall remains cautious.
“You never count your chickens before they hatch,” he said. “I’ll continue to lobby and to request and to work with the province to make sure that we land where we should, which is protecting parks for kids and not allowing them to be turned into drug dens.”
