Catherine McKenney served two terms as city councillor for Somerset, has been active in the not-for-profit sector around the city, and was the runner-up in the 2022 Ottawa mayoral election. Now, they’re seeking the Ontario NDP nomination in Ottawa Centre.

McKenney sat down with Ottawa Compass to discuss their plans and priorities for Ottawa Centre, what they’ve been up to, and why they’ve decided to venture into provincial politics after a two-year hiatus from politics.

Why have you decided to make the jump into provincial politics? 

That’s an excellent question, and it’s one that I’ve been asking myself. When I left politics almost two years ago to this day, I felt quite satisfied that I had served two terms on council, and I had no regrets over the mayoral campaign.

It was an amazing campaign, I had a lot of fun, and I really felt like we elevated a lot of the conversations around issues that are important to the city. I have no regrets, but I was happy to be out of the public realm, and as a result, I started to look around and wondering, ‘what else is there for me?’.

I care deeply about cities: that’s where people live. It’s where people need to function. It’s where people either thrive or don’t thrive. And for the longest time, I had absolutely no intention of getting back into public life and into politics. As time went on, I started to have people reach out to me about various levels of government. It’s actually just in the last month or two.

So, a little bit over a month ago, my wife and I were cycling one day. And I said, I’m thinking about provincial politics. She slammed on the brakes, ‘hold up, where does that come from?’

I’ve not involved myself in City of Ottawa politics, and nor should I. I don’t feel that it’s appropriate for me. Others are there. We have some really great progressive councillors, and they’re doing an amazing job. I just didn’t feel like it was appropriate for me to be in that space. 

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the best political job I will ever have, no matter what I do next, is as a city councillor, and I believe that entirely, because the influence that you’re able to have in your community is like nothing else.

I had been there and done that. I thought, ‘why not provincial?’ Everything I care about happens at the provincial level, and it’s so tightly connected to what happens at the municipal level, right in our cities and in our towns. 

I would say it was a decision made over a day. I made a couple of phone calls. And then I was just really excited to move forward. 

Can you elaborate on why you felt provincial politics is the right fit for you?

Every level of government is important. But for the work that I want to continue to do, and where I believe I can make the best contribution, is really in the areas of housing and homelessness, in transit, in areas like bike lanes and congestion… How we build our cities, and how our cities function, and that all happens at the provincial level. 

That is an area where I can work with my municipal counterpart, where I can work with a team at Queen’s Park, to ensure that cities stay functioning and healthy and that we do better. We’ve not done very well as a province, and we can do so much better. 

When I ran for mayor, I had promised a policy to end chronic homelessness in four years. I believe very strongly that we can end chronic homelessness, and we’re falling behind. We’re allowing more and more people to fall into homelessness every day, and there’s absolutely no reason for that. We can end it. We can house people. 

We don’t even have to come up with new programs; they’re all there. We just need more of it. We need support for people coming out of chronic homelessness who maybe have addictions or mental illness. We need more housing, period. We need housing allowances to stop people from falling into homelessness. It’s all there; we’ve done little bits and pieces. 

We’ve got a provincial government right now that is not committed to ending homelessness. It’s not even committed to building better housing and more housing. And I really do believe that we can do that.

Does the current Premier, and the government that is currently in office, affect your choice to do this? 

Absolutely, that is the other factor in me making my decision, because as a city councillor, you’re quite independent. In party politics, it’s a bit different. You have to understand who your leader is, what they stand for, what the party stands for. And while you may not agree on 100 per cent of everything —  most people don’t — you really have to believe in what they’re proposing.

With (Ontario NDP leader) Marit Stiles, the more and more I heard on different podcasts, heard her interviewed, and I was fortunate enough to have lunch with her one day, the more I was determined that she will be our next Premier, and she will be an exceptional Premier, and I am 100 per cent excited to be part of that team.

What did you learn from the mayoral race that you think informs you moving forward in this role?

I’m not sure that I will ever run [again] in a race as big as a mayoral race. To run for mayor in a large city takes resources that are astronomical — people resources, brain power, just just the amount of support behind me and to move that campaign forward. 

I think it’s really hard to really understand what it takes to run that, that type of, that type of campaign. And I felt that we ran an excellent campaign. I also believe strongly, you know, people come in second. Somebody has to and that was me. 

Outside of not winning, I really have no regrets about the policies that we put forward, but building those policies and thinking them through was something I’d never done before. I’d never had to really consider, what does it mean to put forward a policy where we would build out safe cycling infrastructure for families, for individuals, for kids across the city in four years instead of 20 or 25: what does that mean? How is that funded? How does that work? How does that sit within a budget envelope, for example? How does that fit into our long range financial plan of ending chronic homelessness?

It’s not enough just to say you’re going to do it, but you have to know how. I do believe that having all of that experience really does set me up well to move over to the next level, which is provincial. I don’t like to say ‘up’, because I don’t believe it’s ‘up; a level. No, I believe it’s moving over to another.

How do you believe you can be a strong advocate at Queen Park to represent Ottawa Centre?

We need true advocates across the province. Of course, the current provincial government in the past six years has not made life better for anyone. We don’t have more housing supply. We don’t have more affordable housing. People are doing more poorly. 

When you think about, when you think about a province, and how a province needs to function, and how cities need to function within provinces as well, I think it’s very important to have people in at Queen’s Park who understand municipalities, understand cities, and understand that we also need a change in that fiscal framework for cities. 

Cities don’t have enough funding to do the things that they need to do, and we need provinces who will partner with municipalities and the cities. We also need a province that understands housing supply and how you can actually build housing supply within existing neighborhoods, so that you’re not contributing to further urban expansion that’s just expensive and drives cities into bankruptcy. 

We need a province that understands that we need to invest in transit. If you do truly care about congestion, removing bike lanes is not going to remove congestion. I was coming home yesterday, I was one of eight bikes at a corner in a bike lane and there were about four cars beside us, and I thought to myself, ‘even if two of us were partnered up in a car, there would still be six more cars on this road right here at this intersection.’ So how does that remove congestion? 

How do you think an early election would impact your plans moving forward?

I don’t think that we need a provincial election right now, but if this premier feels that it’s in his political best interest, we are ready to move forward. We are ready to accept the challenge. We are ready to fight in that provincial election and show people what a serious party with serious priorities can bring to them.

In that same vein, in the event that there’s a change in leadership at the federal level, how do you see that impacting the work you aim to do? 

We don’t know what’s going to happen federally, but I don’t imagine the polls have been wrong for well over a year.

But whoever forms the next government, I still believe that you know we have to make sure that we’re paying attention and ensuring that we don’t fall backwards. The federal government is so important, but our provincial governments are the ones that are closest to people. They’re the ones whose decisions affect us in our day-to-day lives. 

So I’m focused on the provincial election and the outcomes of the provincial election, I’ve also been focused on the outcomes of two recent provincial elections in New Brunswick and in British Columbia. I think that in New Brunswick, we’ve seen that pushing that cultural war too far has had an effect on the existing government. So I hope that that’s a lesson to not just whoever forms government federally, but also provincially, anywhere. I also think that it’s a sign that people are ready for a change.

People can see that we are a few years removed from the pandemic, and things have not gotten better.

Issues like transit and are consistent with what you’ve often advocated for. What are some other issues that are top of mind for you?

Well, we have a supervised consumption site in Somerset Ward, Somerset West Community Health Center, that is slated to be shut down, and that is going to have effects on people’s lives. It will likely result in many more deaths, many more overdoses. So it’s something that we have to stop, and I want to be there to be able to work towards stopping it. 

We’ve also got long wait lists for healthcare providers. I have friends who do not have a healthcare provider, whether it’s a doctor, a family physician or nurse practitioner. We have to invest in healthcare and in equity in healthcare. 

We have a school in Ottawa Centre that is falling apart, and we don’t have the funding yet in place to provide a new school for young kids. It doesn’t pass fire code, and we’re sending kids into this school. 

So, it doesn’t matter which way you look or how you look, everything that is the responsibility of the province right now is not working.

When it comes to the province’s role in municipal issues, some local councillors have raised concerns about issues like bike lanes where the Ontario government has been stepping in. What is your view on that?

Urban expansion is another one. We have a provincial government that is not investing where it needs to invest. It’s not making the changes that it needs to make, and yet is overreaching in two municipal areas. They’re looking at pushing out the urban boundary, which is going to just make cities less and less fiscally sustainable. You cannot continue to build out. 

When it’s about removing bike lanes… bike lanes are part of a transportation master plan. They’ve been agreed to by residents, by council, and they’ve been voted on. It is a gross overreach. And it’s also proven to make everybody, not just cyclists, safer. Why would you want everyone to be safer on the street? 

At the same time you know it’s time to have a provincial government, and that would be an NDP provincial government, that actually invests in cities and actually works towards making them better, rather than just reaching into their jurisdiction.

What else do you think Ottawa Centre needs to know about your decision to run? 

I don’t take any of the issues lightly that are happening in Ottawa Centre or across the province. I’ve always been involved at the municipal level; I was a Councillor’s assistant for many years and it was my second best job, after councillor. I had a senior role at the city for many years working in operations with the Deputy City Manager, and then I was a city councillor. 

So I understand cities. I understand municipalities and how they function. And I really do feel that until we have a provincial government that truly understands where people live, how people live, how they function, and they want to actually take care of that, I’m just afraid that we’re going to keep slipping backwards. 

I’ve seen it over the last few years, and it doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to have people living in encampments in the city. And we do. We have shelters that are overflowing. 

We’ve got a raging opioid crisis. Why are we worried about bike lanes when we can be actually working with people to make sure that they’re better? There are solutions, but this government is not invested in those solutions. 

The post Former mayoral candidate Catherine McKenney wants to take on Queen’s Park for Ottawa Centre appeared first on CompassNews.

“One of the benefits [of being a minister] is that I’m able to bring local examples to the Cabinet in our discussions,” says Downey, MPP for the Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte riding, which he describes as being “like a microcosm of Ontario.”

These days, a lot of these stories revolve around the same concern. Whether speaking with people working on the farms near Elmvale, at tourist hot spots around the Hardwood Hills or in downtown businesses based in Barrie, Downey says that everyone wants to talk about the rising cost-of-living.

“Affordability — it is the most important thing everywhere now.”

The MPP, who got his start in politics as an Orillia city councillor between 2000 and 2006, places much of the blame on the federal government’s shoulders. He is particularly critical of Ottawa’s 2019 decision to implement a carbon tax, which has risen sharply in recent year and currently sits at $80 per tonne of CO2 equivalent — which roughly translates to 14.3 cents per litre of gasoline.

“That gets added to the cost of everything — whether you’re drying grain [on an industrial scale] or just a person trying to move around.”

The lawyer-turned-politician, who was first elected to the Ontario Legislature in 2018, adds that the provincial government must ensure life in Ontario becomes more affordable. To that end, he says it is focusing on making the infrastructure investments. “We’re spending billions. Anyone who goes up [Highway] 400 can see all the work being done on bridges and overpasses. Soon, we’ll be seeing that in Springwater, too.”

He also says his government is making strides in its efforts to improve access to affordable housing. Here, the strategy is simple: make Ontario a more attractive market for would-be landlords in order to increase the supply of sorely needed rental units.

According to the most recent numbers from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., vacancy rates in the province fell to 1.4 per cent at the beginning of the year, an all-time low.

During a media availability last month, Premier Doug Ford indicated the province was moving ahead with reforms that would make it quicker to evict non-paying tenants, a task that would fall on Downey, whose portfolio includes the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), the body that adjudicates rental disputes.

In recent years, the LTB faced a growing backlog of cases, the majority of them related to non-payment of rent. This peaked at the end of 2023, a year that saw a 31 per cent increase in the number of applications put to the board. At that point, Downey said it was taking “nine or 10 months” for it to reach decisions.

Under his oversight, the LTB has implemented several strategies to reduce the backlog since May 2023. With 89 new appointments, the number of adjudicators was more than doubled. It also adopted a number of operational changes, including the introduction of new technologies and the streamlining of its existing processes.

“With operational changes, everybody wins,” said Downey. “Finding efficiencies and improving processes will allow us to speed things up, whether you’re a landlord or a tenant.”

According to a statement provided by Tribunals Ontario, which includes the LTB, these strategies are paying off, with wait times on most decisions cut to around three months. “The LTB has been reducing its backlog every month this year, and reduced the [total] caseload by approximately 12 per cent from April 1 from September 30, 2024.”

Downey adds that while the province is focused on improving access to affordable living spaces in the long term, it is also working to address the needs of Ontario’s growing homeless population, and the municipalities struggling to deal with them, in the short term.

One decision he’s particularly proud of was Ford’s appointment of Michael Tibollo as Ontario’s first associate minister of mental health and addictions.

“We’re also putting $3.8 billion into that area,” he noted.

Downey says the premier is also mulling a motion from the big city mayors’ caucus calling on the provincial and federal governments to take on intervenor status in dealing with people living in encampments within municipalities.

“We need to make sure we’re helping our community and helping individuals. The Premier’s committed to it and we’re committed to it.”

The motion would also call for an update of the Mental Health Act and the Health Care Consent Act to enforce mandatory treatment for addiction and some severe mental health cases, according to a copy of the draft motion viewed by QP Briefing.

“Every topic we grapple with is difficult and this is no different,” Downey said. “This is something we’re thinking about actively. It crosses many ministries, so it takes a little bit [of time] to have those conversations.”

The post Province confronting affordability crisis head-on: A.G. appeared first on CompassNews.

“Is it worthwhile continuing as is, expanding [the relationship] or even just right-sizing it?” asks Sergio Morales, who has served as a councillor since 2014. “These are awkward conversations — but they’re also important ones to have.”

Like Orillia, Barrie is considered a separated city within Simcoe. It is responsible for its own public works projects and for handling most public services, including waste management, police and fire departments and local public transportation services. Simcoe oversees its ambulance services, homeless shelters, affordable housing units, museums and archives. It also funds the LINX regional transit system as well as the operation of the Lake Simcoe Regional Airport.

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“In the past, there was a strong value proposition for Barrie to be involved with Simcoe — and there might still be,” he says.

Morales is not alone in his concerns — though he may be the most vocal about them. At Barrie City Hall, public servants, political aides and even sitting councillors are more than willing to discuss their issues with the county — provided comments are not put on the record.

“It’s a dicey thing for us to talk about,” says one city official speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We’ve still got to work with [Simcoe] on a number of issues — and we don’t want to spoil the relationship.”

One area of contention comes from Barrie’s lack of representation on the county council. The body is composed of representatives – mayors and deputy mayors — from the region’s unseparated municipalities, though Orillia and Barrie are represented on committees related to services they receive.

The status quo also has its defenders, including Ramara Mayor and Simcoe County Warden Basil Clarke. According to a statement provided by county officials, he said “… [Simcoe County council] strongly believes that the economies of scale that result from regional county services are beneficial to all of our tax-payers, including [those] in Barrie and Orillia.”

“When there’s a larger tax base contributing, the taxation impact on everyone is smaller. By bringing these municipalities together, we create efficiencies that would not otherwise be possible for our municipalities and cities.”

George Cabral, deputy mayor of Springwater and a member of the county council, also believes many in Barrie are overlooking the economic benefits offered by the existing system.

READ MORE: Barrie area residents signal support for municipal boundary adjustment, new poll suggests

“In my opinion, the separated cities would be the ones to lose out if they left,” says Cabral. “Because of its size, the city, quite rightly, receives more services — so sometimes it feels things are actually slanted toward the larger urban areas.”

This year, the county earmarked $101 million for social housing, most of which will be spent in Barrie. Next year, work begins on a $217 million project to build housing and a social services hub on Rose St.

“The costs of these projects. . . . would greatly impact budgets and tax rates if the majority of the costs outside of provincial or federal funding. . . were the sole responsibility of one municipality or city,” Clarke said.

Cabral agrees that all civic officials must keep a close eye on service costs and consider if these could be more efficiently managed in house. “At the end of the day, it’s about what is the best value you can get for a particular service. . . . You have to consider what the cost is compared to what the municipality could afford on its own.”

“There are areas where we probably get more than our fair share and there are clear inefficiencies for Barrie’s taxpayer dollars,” says Morales. “This is about looking for what makes sense.”

One issue many politicians recognize is causing friction between the two levels of government is homelessness. Currently, Barrie officials estimate that 617 unhoused people are living in the city — far more than live in the rest of the county. Despite this, police must co-ordinate with Simcoe officials to find space at local shelters and begin the removal process.

“The county also understands that the chain-of-command is disruptive, especially when you have to do things in a time-sensitive manner,” Morales says. “Whenever you have to loop in another level of government, it takes time — time we don’t always have available.”

There is one area Cabral says Simcoe and Barrie work particularly well together — healthcare. The Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre receives patients from across the region, many of them arriving in county ambulances.

The county chief also believes its paramedic services provide Barrie with significant cost savings. According to the regional government’s figures, the service costs Barrie taxpayers about half as much as it would cost if brought under civic control.

“This is a good example of [how sharing] resources, infrastructure and assets among a larger population, you get strong value and efficiencies in operations, service levels and costs,” Clarke said.

Given the current level of co-operation, Cabral struggles to imagine Barrie could make a clean break from the county without creating difficulties “When it comes to the regional hospital, which gets the majority of its funding from the province, where do you draw that line?”

The most obvious way for Barrie to alter its relationship with the county would be for it to leave — a move that would require the approval of the province. Whether Ontario’s government would back such a divorce is unclear — especially given its recent experiences with regional reorganizations.

READ MORE: Nuttall considering using ‘strong mayor’ powers to order the dismantling of Barrie encampments

Last year, it announced plans to dissolve Peel Region before cancelling them. While the move was meant to save money, many municipal leaders protested on the grounds that it would lead to severe service disruptions as well as tax hikes.

According to Morales, the city would be wise to pursue a subtler course. “This isn’t as simple as asking, ‘do we stay or do we go?’ he says. “That’s an emotional question and this issue doesn’t need emotion — we need to think about figuring out a better deal.”

One such course would involve negotiating directly with Simcoe in 2028. By statute, cities are able to renegotiate service agreement with counties every five years, though, according to Clarke, municipalities are able to pursue concessions at other points as well. “Each year, the cities are able to participate and provide input into the county’s budget.”

Another approach would see the city make an appeal at the provincial level. If Barrie does pursue such a course, it would not be alone. Earlier this year, Bradford West Gwillimbury mayor James Leduc petitioned the provincial standing committee on heritage, infrastructure and cultural policy for changes to be made to the county’s governance structure. He objected to the fact that Bradford West Gwillimbury, Innisfil and New Tecumseth provided more than a third of the county’s tax dollars yet were represented by less than a fifth of its councillors.

“Whatever we do, we have to get this right,” says Morales, who believes the county and city councils will face criticism for decisions made by the other until the relationship is redefined. “Residents only ever see one level of government.”

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The post Barrie and Simcoe County — better as friends? appeared first on CompassNews.

QP Briefing has learned the province’s big city mayors’ caucus is debating passing a motion asking the provincial and federal governments to take on “intervenor status” in future court cases that could restrict their communities’ ability to regulate and prohibit encampments.

The motion would also call for an update of the Mental Health Act and the Health Care Consent Act to enforce mandatory treatment for addiction and some severe mental health cases, according to a copy of the draft motion viewed by QP Briefing.

It will be debated at the caucus’ next meeting on October 18.

A major goal of the motion appears to be pressing provincial and the federal governments to permit municipal regulation of encampments, advocating that courts should not dictate homelessness policies that override provincial and municipal authority.

“Municipalities need clear and enforceable guidance from the provincial government and must have the legal authority to act swiftly and decisively when public safety is at risk,” the motion reads.

It says court decisions have restricted municipalities’ ability to manage public lands effectively, making it difficult to handle encampments and ensure public safety.

Mayors say conversations around the motion started in August, during the meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), of which the caucus is part of. AMO includes all municipal governments in Ontario except for Toronto.

A report conducted by AMO in July said that “some people living in encampments refuse offers of shelter or housing options, (…) There are situations when it is necessary to re-locate and/or remove encampments and find other alternative options.”

“It is not a sustainable, long-term solution for municipalities to allow the normalization of encampments. Municipalities need to act in the best interests of the homeless and their communities to find other solutions,” the report read.

Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall said the motion is necessary because municipalities need the system to work.

“Right now, because of the court rulings, we’re not able to enforce our bylaws and ensure that our parks are kept as, you know, safe, clean and welcoming areas,” he said.

“We’re struggling in some parks where our pathways and treed areas, as well as playgrounds, are being turned into encampments. We’re seeing a lot of drug paraphernalia in these areas, which creates an unsafe situation for our most vulnerable citizens, our children.”

For mayors across Ontario, the problem goes beyond managing public spaces. The mayors say that the root causes of homelessness — often undiagnosed and untreated mental health issues and addictions — are being ignored, and the burden of addressing them is being unfairly placed on local governments.

The motion says provincial and federal governments need to “take responsibility for policy decisions that have led to this humanitarian crisis and must take on a greater leadership role in helping municipalities address the associated issues.”

It will also advise the provincial and federal governments to develop a “compassionate, compulsory treatment program that expands the scope of and strengthens the system of mandatory community-based and residential mental health and addictions treatment under the Mental Health Act and the Health Care Consent Act.”

This means individuals with severe mental health or addiction issues would be required to receive treatment, even if they do not voluntarily seek it.

The Mental Health Act and the Health Care Consent Act are existing pieces of legislation that govern how mental health care is provided and under what circumstances someone can be treated without their consent.

Minister of Health Sylvia Jones has raised concerns about involuntary treatment in the past, but refused to completely rule it out.

When asked if Ontario would be on board with the mayors’ proposal, a spokesperson for the premier’s office said simply that the province is “looking at all options available.”

“We’re hearing from municipalities and residents who are rightly frustrated with the encampments in their communities,” the spokesperson added.

Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis said the Mental Health Act is outdated and needs to be reviewed.

“It hasn’t been done now for 30 years. We believe there’s a need to look at sections of the Mental Health Act that deal with mandatory treatment, and consider those sections in light of what we’ve all been experiencing in the last 10 years and what’s currently happening,” he said.

“I think myself and a number of other mayors feel that the focus is too much on harm reduction. This is an attempt to broaden the approach,” Davis said.

“I know from my own personal experience in dealing with alcoholics in my family and friends, that if you enable an addiction, that is not going to create the circumstances or the incentive for the person to seek treatment,” he added.

The motion will also recommend the governments to implement “Diversion Courts” throughout the province, to divert cases from the penal system to a health system. These courts will also:

“A. Providing the Courts with an escalating scale of penalty provisions in the case of subsequent convictions for repetitive trespass;
B. Allowing for referral to a Diversion Court for charges of repetitive trespass;
C. Permitting a police officer to arrest a person without warrant who commits an act of repetitive trespass.”

“Repetitive trespass” was not defined in the motion.

Finally, the motion advises the provincial and federal governments to pass legislation prohibiting open and public use of illicit drugs and public intoxication, whether that be by consumption of alcohol or illicit drugs.

“I don’t want to be part of a society or community that puts the trauma of adults ahead of the innocence of children,” he said. “We need to help those suffering from homelessness and addiction while also preserving safe spaces for our kids,” Nuttall said.

Municipalities plan to relocate these people into supportive shelter spaces or transitional supportive housing in social services that are available in each municipality. Some are run by the local region or the municipal government, but others fall into provincial and federal responsibility.

Supportive housing is affordable housing with on-site support that helps individuals achieve housing stability.

The wait list for government subsidized housing assistance in 2018 was 215,000 people. A study from the Canada Housing Renewal Association says that additional 143,225 units of affordable community housing are needed in Ontario by 2030 just to meet the OECD average.

“We’ll wait to see where the federal government would go in terms of working with the municipalities,” Nuttall said.

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