Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown is welcoming the federal government of Ontario’s newest combat in opposition to homeless encampments with the passing of Invoice 6, often known as the Safer Municipalities Act.
The Ford authorities’s new Act permits native authorities extra energy to clear homeless encampments with fines of as much as $10,000 or six months in jail for trespassing or utilizing medicine in public.
In late 2024, 12 mayors despatched Premier Doug Ford letters asking for assist coping with encampments.
A type of leaders, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, says this Act is important to lower the usage of medicine in public areas.
“We’re doing our greatest to make it possible for there’s zero tolerance for medicine in public areas and meaning clearing out encampments,” Brown stated at a information convention Friday.
Advocates for these dwelling on the road say this invoice will criminalize homeless folks.
“What we’ve seen with this invoice now being handed is that people who’re homeless will likely be thought of criminals if they’re perceived as utilizing medicine in public areas,” Encampment Justice Coalition spokesperson, Diana Chan McNally stated.
Earlier than Invoice 6 was enacted, town of Brampton had been clearing out public areas, hiring personal safety and placing up indicators prohibiting in a single day tenting.
Town of Brampton has been clearing out public areas and posting up indicators that prohibit tenting in a single day. CITYNEWS
Sheena Paton, a Brampton resident who lived close to the place some tents had been arrange says she’d desire in the event that they had been left alone.
“No person is aware of their story and the way they’re dwelling on the streets and whatnot,” she stated.
Mayors throughout Ontario say they’re calling for extra from the province and federal authorities to assist with different help companies together with shelter house.
McNally says offering extra dwelling house is the answer.
“The one factor that’s going to finish encampments is housing,” she stated.” So the stress ought to have at all times been on the federal government to expedite that housing for folks as an alternative of utilizing criminalizing ways and instruments like we’re seeing in Invoice 6,”
The Encampment Justice Coalition plans to take the matter to court docket with the argument that it’s an infringement on folks’s rights with nowhere for them to go.
