Regional councilor Pam Wolf wasn’t overly surprised with a judge’s ruling last week regarding an encampment in Kitchener, especially because she had raised the idea of creating a tenting bylaw at regional council almost six months ago. “We had been warned by the judge and the people at the encampment and the lawyers representing them that they wanted another place to go,” Wolf told CBC K-W’s The Morning Edition on Tuesday. Wolf’s motion back in January didn’t pass, but now she says the region has an opportunity to create a tenting bylaw with measures and rules it would like to see, like fire safety and the number of tents allowed at a time. She said it would also let outreach workers know where to go to connect people with services, like housing and reduce the risk of overdoses and medical emergencies. Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael R. Gibson ruled last week that the Region of Waterloo could not remove the residents of an encampment at 100 Victoria St. N., in downtown Kitchener unless the region offers an alternative site or develops a tenting bylaw. Gibson said the encampment is currently the only place in the region where people experiencing homelessness can legally set up a tent or structure and that the encampment acts a refuge of last resort. LISTEN | Councillor Pam Wolf on the region creating a tenting bylaw: The Morning Edition – K-W8:39Councillor Pam Wolf on tenting protocol that was voted down by regional council Last week a judge ruled the region could not move people off an encampment in downtown Kitchener. He said the region must offer an alternative site or have a tenting protocol. One regional councillor pitched the idea of a tenting rule back in January. Councillor Pam Wolf shares her thoughts on this ruling and perhaps a missed opportunity by the region. But regional Coun. Jim Erb, who is the chair of the region’s community health services committee, said he would rather see people housed. “Regional staff have been working with residents there for years trying to move them into safer housing and for me that’s the primary goal,” he told . “I don’t want to transfer what is not ideal living conditions now to another site.” The region’s municipalities have had “legitimate concerns” about an alternate site the past, Erb said, and the region would need their co-operation if that’s the direction they take.
Ball back in region’s court
Wolf says she’s hopeful council will take the idea more seriously now that the judge has “put the ball back in our court.” “Realistically we have so many people that are homeless, more than just the 20 or 30 that are on the site, so we do need a place of last resort. That is why we need a structured, safe tenting protocol,” she said. It would be difficult to bring Wolf’s January motion back to council for discussion. Under the rules, to bring a motion back, three-quarters of council would need to agree to doing so and at least one of those councillors would need to be someone who voted against it. Wolf said once council meets to discuss the court ruling, a different motion for a tenting bylaw could come forward, she said.Tenting bylaws in other Ontario cities
In his decision last week, Justice Gibson said the Region of Waterloo could look to the cities of London and Thunder Bay, who already have tenting bylaws in place. Thunder Bay is just getting started with their bylaw after councillors in that city approved three designated encampment sites earlier this month. The City of London provides guidelines for where encampments cannot be set up, how and when they are taken down by officials, as well as what health and safety rules they require. Although not mentioned in the judgement, the City of Guelph also passed a bylaw in October 2024, which sets out rules on how city-owned spaces should be used by the public. The bylaw lays out where people can go and rules around how many tents can be set up at a time. Tents are not allowed near buildings, playgrounds, schools and child-care centres, as well as cemeteries and trails. Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie says he believes the bylaw has been successful and well accepted, particularly by the businesses in the downtown who were negatively impacted by an encampment in St. George’s Square in the late summer and fall of 2024. But he said they’re now seeing more encampments near residential areas and believes there needs to be guidelines on tenting protocols coming from the courts or the province. “Until the courts step up an actually give the clarity that every municipality needs, every single city will continue to wrestle the degree where we can have public space bylaws be implemented and how far those bylaws can or cannot go,” Guthrie said. “Or until the province decides to use the notwithstanding clause, we are going to continue to be in these very unfortunate situations around the legal issues that municipalities are facing.” Guthrie believes its an issue that municipalities are now having to manage because of a lack of resources from the province and federal government. A homeless encampment near the Thames Valley Parkway in London Ont. The city set out rules on where people experiencing homelessness can’t set up a tent. (Travis Dolynny/) Laura Pin, an associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, has researched how Ontario municipalities have been handling the issue of encampments. She says her research found that tenting protocols are successful in preventing the forceful removal of people experiencing homelessness and it helps meet their immediate needs. It also helps municipalities and outreach workers know where to provide services. “When evictions happen, it makes it much more difficult for people to access the kinds of services and resources that we might want them to be able to access,” Pin told The Morning Edition Monday. LISTEN | Laura Pin on how cities can rethink their response to encampments: The Morning Edition – K-W9:17How municipalities should rethink their response to encampments The Region of Waterloo has been told it cannot move people off the Kitchener encampment site unless it offers another site or develops a tenting policy. What does that mean and is that the right move? Laura Pin is a researcher and associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University who has looked at how municipalities can better respond to encampments. Sarah Campbell, executive director of Ark Aid Mission in London, an organization that works closely with the homeless population in that city, said London’s bylaw doesn’t clearly identify where people can set up a tent without the risk of being removed. She said it means that people are setting up and tearing down in different locations daily, making it difficult for organizations like hers to find people and connect them to resources they need. “When these criteria were set up we actually had, at the time, locations that we would support, so we had porta-potties, some water stations and outreach would regularly and consistently show up to provide care for people,” she told . Now, funding for those supports have ended, she said. Campbell said tenting bylaws need to take a human rights approach by providing residents with washrooms, water, outreach supports and they should clearly state where people are allowed to go. “When it’s a designated area where people can go, I do think organizations can attempt to work with that community to create safety for people, even though it’s outdoors,” she said.Source link
