06/05/2026
June 2, 2026
ENCAMPMENT PROTOCOL UPDATE
PRESENTATIONS & REPORTS
5.l) Encampment Protocol Update – Councillor Black
Mayor Boileau, thank you I see no other questions, we’ll go on to the next item 5 L and this item Councillor Black asked to speak to the incoming protocol, go ahead, thank you your worship, and through you I'm going to assume based on attendance that the CEO is feeling inquiries on this one as I don't see her community safety coordinator or whatever the appropriate title is present tonight so I will direct questions through your worship to the CEO. My reason for asking this to be on the agenda tonight is I think there's been a number of discussions over the years and a number of changes and developments to our own encampment protocol as legal processes take their course in various cities around the province as well as our own legal advice and I guess the question that stumps me, or that I'd like to ask, after having this back on and going back through the details of the current proposal is twofold, one I thought we used to have a maximum number of tents that were allowed in anyone setting and I don't see that in the current version, so, I am I correct in assuming that's no longer a restriction.
Dave Landers, and through you your worship, that’s correct.
Councillor Black, and then the second is the one that's playing in front of everyone's eyes there is a daytime requirement in this protocol for people to take down their encampments between certain hours in the daytime that is clearly not being done at all sites across our city, so my question is why is it not being done and I think it has a component of who enforces that or is willing to enforce that. But for instance, driving over here before the council meeting it's still in daytime hours and any encampment location that is adjacent to the shelter, there was 20 tents setup which is obviously largely past the previous limit of five, but that's no longer a restriction, but also currently is not following our time rules so my question to you is why is that being allowed to not follow the daytime vacate rule and be is it tied to enforcement or willingness to enforce by or legislative ability to enforce by law and or police, and I guess if it's a willingness side my question is if we're getting a lack of desire to enforce from our other agencies, is there other avenues we can go such as trespassing process to encourage support from those other agencies who may not be as willing to come in and relocate people at the current moment.
Councillor Black, I know that was a large bit, Mayor Boileau, of a run on question, Mayor Boileau, thank you Councillor Black, now if we could just maintain decorum, I will allow Mr. Landers to answer that question.
Dave Landers, alright thank you worshiping, I'll do my best to answer this question, but as I've said a few times the sort of legal situation just keeps shifting under our feet with this and so there's a few considerations first of all the encamping protocol sits on our city website, so you can find it there if you know if you're interested in looking through it, which might not have been the first part of your question ,but it's has it changed overtime, there is no, based on what we've, what the lawyers have told us about other areas in Ontario, there is no way to enforce, as you know that it can only be 5 tents, so I guess the idea would be to sort of separate the encampments into pods or something like that, but that's just not enforceable. Secondly the protocol does speak to you know a requirement to tear, you know essentially tear down or remove your tent come morning time, right so, if someone sets up for example, someone sets up a tent in the Hollinger park at 8:00 at night you know the following morning by law can attend and ask them to remove their tent because the enforceability that we have is that there is potentially at risk populations in the Hollinger park using the splash pads, the children's equipment, you know that that sort of thing, so our ability to enforce this, you know tear down and then set up every morning, and every night only exists within public spaces such as parks that have you know play equipment, sporting activity for children that might be going on because those are the at risk areas. Other public places, so you know empty fields of the municipality that people set up in, it's not enforceable to demand a tear down, and you and reset up at night because there there's nobody put at risk I mean perhaps the public doesn't like to see that in in its community, you know but the reality I, it's you know, it's in an empty municipal field or an empty municipal piece of property and the children in the area are not seeing people living their private lives so openly, and I know where this is going to go, that this is a residential area and people should not have to see this. I fully agree but the preponderance of the case law that exists, and it's not a lot just doesn't support us on this, so can we go to the encampment behind living space and say there's too many tents, no we cannot, can we go and say you need to tear down every night, every morning, and reset up every night in that area I do not believe it would be enforceable whatsoever. We can do it in a park, in the Hollinger park for example, because frankly there's other places where homeless people could go, and could set up where there would not be, you know children in a splash pad, children you know playing on equipment, and families engaged in those sorts of activities.
Councillor Black, so just in follow up to that, I guess the question I have for the residents in the area of the living space then, is your public position here tonight that we don't have an ability through legislation from the upper levels of government, we don't have the ability to limit or prevent encampments from being set up in that residential area as they are right now?
Dave Landers, through your worship, my understanding, and in conversation with lawyers on this one, is no we do not have that ability.
Councillor Black, and then the final follow up to this question is previously, obviously we've had legal advice as well, previously this council had dedicated or expressed its desire to dedicate a encampment location in the community for public sake, can you speak to that, and whether that's on hold or whether that is considered a dedicated spot or whether that has any relevance in any current legislation in our ability to enforce any encampment protocols or bylaws?
Dave Landers, through you your worship, our ability to compel people to go to a one site that we select is very limited. I'm not sure that it's that it's possible to enforce particularly you know, look we looked at a lot of sites and there was no good ones, there is the site that that was on down on Pine St. that you know, that we kind of landed on, and there are people out there now or there have been, because I've received some complaints about it already, so there are there are cleared out spaces there, where people are camped or do set up from time to time, When asked you know that, that's a location, I believe our enforcement officers are saying that there are people going to but cannot compel them to go there part of the whole human rights issue you know related to this as defined in some of the legal matters we built it into the protocol, but it's certainly that the courts look on the situation of people living homeless as people you know who are societal victims of a variety of different things, perhaps it's mental illness, inability to maintain a home, perhaps it's alcohol or drug use, perhaps it's residential school trauma or survivor trauma, there's also all sorts of different situations that arise, but regardless the Human Rights Commission is looking at that and you know saying that these are, this is a group of people who have a broadly speaking, have a set of concerns that need to be considered when and taking action, you know in regards to where they're living. They need to be able to connect with and to service with some ability, you know as easily as possible, so those, all of those different sorts of things, you know play into the situation. The other, I mean the other factor is like, I mean there's our homeless, so have we done any work, done on Pine Street, I think that's where the question was going, we have not, there is space there if someone chooses to go there, we had not intended to bring in power, lights, security, any of those sorts of things, frankly any of those investments would be, you know better spent at, you know a different shelter system or style as opposed to the place down on Pine, but you know, as it stands right now, I mean the shelters not running at capacity, so the risk capacity for people to enter right into the shelter as we speak, so you know, we're not in a spot where we are looking for overflow space, the outreach workers can go directly to the individuals there and hopefully bring them into the shelter, out of the elements and out of the cold.
Councillor Black, thank you for that further clarification. I guess my concern here lies, and I don't know that we want to get into the, and maybe we need to, but I don't know that we want to get into the provision of shelter spaces and additional shelter spaces as a municipality. The frustrating, and I said it last time, the frustrating part I guess is for residents, because we have a system whether it be through DSSAB, province, us the group of people responsible for governing a municipality. We've created a system where we do have space in our shelter, there are people who either choose not to be in that shelter, or people who are also not allowed to be in that shelter for reasons of not being able to comply with the rules of the shelter. I guess what I am hearing tonight is you know we started with a couple of this summer, we're up to 20 as of tonight in that location, is there's no avenue or plan in place to prevent those residents from having to deal with this other than maybe put up fences and try and hide it as best we can. But if you drive by the area you’ll notice fences don't stand up very long in that area either, so that that's a concern, so I guess, I don't know where to go from here, other than, you know buying out residents in the area and then letting them move to a more peaceful location if we're going to allow this area to be overrun, or for not going to pursue some action and test that legal, now I read the recent Kitchener Waterloo report and it was very adamant in that report for the justice was very adamant in that report that it was tied to the fact that they did not have another place for these people to go which is why he did not allow them to be removed from the site that they wanted to be removed for transit development, so again it came down to that not having an alternate space or a dedicated space for them to go to, so I'm still struggling why we're not, and if Pine Streets not the right location, fine bring a location that is, that's not close to residential zones and I can get behind it, but I'm struggling as to why we're not testing that, because it seems to be within the parameters of any case law that has been presented to me, that there's a big gap between point X in the case law and point Y in the case law of, you can't just move people without anywhere to go, and there has to be a suitable location that needs to be in a suitable location, hasn't been defined by the case laws that are publicly out there. I can't in good faith tell the residents of ward 5 that I represent, that there's nothing we can do, and we're just going to sit there and let them continue to grow and grow and grow in that residential area, so I don't, no if we want to come back to the table and discuss today if we’re not satisfied with the Pine location and we don't think it, but I think at some point we need to try and, I understand people help so if we want to say you know what we're not willing to go there were going to the shelter business and we're going to try and help the people that way put something on the table but at the very least we have to be willing to at least test if we're compliant with case law which I think there's a big open gap there in the middle to get to and do something for these residents, so there's no resident anywhere in the city that wants 20 encampments 10 feet from their backyard where at this will go in.
Councillor Gvozdanovic, thank you worship, and thanks Councillor Black for putting this on the agenda. I think I've had it on the agenda 3 times and we still haven't solved, now what happens is the same thing happens as happened last year. OK so people go set up tents we get reports in behind the beer store over here, we tear them down and they all end up back in the same spot. OK this is not something that just happened this year, this was the same thing that happened last year, and the year before that. OK so I I go through there all the time wondering you know, how do we fix this you know, and I think I think I did have a suggestion #1 we did pass a resolution at the DSSAB to relocate the shelter. OK and I think that's a big thing that has to happen and then we also passed a resolution that I brought here for one site for encampments. Now I think what we have to do, is we have tonight, and I talked to some of the residents, and I said you know, I says if we had a, if we kind of close that laneway off and we had a fence that ran East West, I remember sending an e-mail to mayor and council about running a fence east West to the back of the shelter so that the only access to the encampment zone will be fenced off, would be through the shelter, never heard nothing from anybody, so I said OK fine, the other option would be to come off of railway because that fence, the wooden fence is all smashed anyways, and in talking to some of the residents, if there could be some kind of mitigation that way, plus the fence that we approved to build, that's a start but we've been going through the same thing every year and this is not something that the residents that live in that area, that I speak to all the time, this was again this year, it was last year, and it was the year before, so it's been three years in a row, and you cannot just go there the CAO is correct, you can't go there, under bylaw says we can take them down first thing in the morning, you going to takedown 20 tents and then then you know. I mean like it's just not an easy issue. I think mitigation is important, I think maybe fencing is important, and talking to the residents, and just be honest with the residents and tell them until we move the shelter. OK you know we're struggling with this, but what are the mitigations, we're not moving the shelter right away, can we put some fencing, OK and those kind of solutions have to come back, but you have to go talk to them, so anyways.
Mayor Boileau, is there any other discussion, any other questions on this item, go ahead Councillor Feldman, yeah just a question, and I don't like putting the CEO on the spot all the time about what the legal decisions of Court of Appeal are, but last time, I think we had a law firm come and give us an opinion of where the case law was.
Dave Landers, there wasn't, they were waiting for some decisions to be handed down.
Councillor Feldman, I don't know if that was in March or April, so I'd like to know, I haven't seen any, I've been kind of tracking. I don't know if the Court of Appeal has landed on a decision specifically relating to municipalities ability to compel a one site location since we've spoken with city legal counsel on that, I believe it was a firm in Toronto, have they updated us on where that decision lies?
Dave Landers, through you your worship, so there hasn't, that decision hasn't been publicly revealed at this point in time. We have been in contact with them, certainly you know, to stay abreast of what's going on, but that's the, I'm going to get the name wrong the Heegsma Case, I believe is what we're talking about and no that hasn't been released.
Councillor Feldman, thank you, and the reason why I asked that question, because I think there will come a point for this council, for any council at some point, if the decision hasn't come down, or it comes down basically where it's at right now where the law states if you don't have suitable spaces for individuals to go you can't take them down, you can't take down these encampments but if you do have those suitable spaces which for the most part we've had in this community, we may have to take a stand with the support of residents to say no we're going to be Trail Blazers in this area and we are going to compel a one site location, and whatever happens with that, I think the residents would support us taking some action, legal action and to test the waters, because I think our protocol is pretty solid. I think we have tried to strike a balance between those requiring encampments but also protecting residents and I think that may eventually be the line in the sand that that we're going to have to cross on behalf of residents, so I'm anxiously awaiting that decision and perhaps at that point will have to make a decision as a council.
Mayor Boileau, and Councillor Curley, thank you maybe an unfair question, but even if we had a place for them to go, another living space whatever the case maybe, it doesn't mean, and maybe Mr. Landers knows the answer to this one, but we can't force them to go anywhere just because we have a building that has a bed, doesn't mean they're going to go in there because there is some people that's living out there, don't want to move inside, they would rather because of all their belongings, they feel safe by living in their tent. Oh I don't know legally where you could go with any of this stuff, because you could build a Taj Mahal and it doesn't mean they're going to want to live in there, they feel quite comfortable out on the street in a tent in a sleeping bag dealing with the extreme weather or whatever the case might be, so how finding a location, finding the property, moving that living space to another location, doesn't mean those people will leave the area and then, if you maybe, you can correct me if I'm wrong. But I don't know if there is a solution anymore for this, I mean this, like you remember this years and years ago down to 12th where the residents were the ones, were living on the street, they had their whole life in that shopping cart, that shopping cart was not allowed to go into that building with the bed, but if they stayed on the street they had their life with them, so I don't know what can be done, maybe you've heard something, if you don't mind to you could share with us thank you.
Dave Landers, through you your worship, your correct Councillor there's no way to compel people to, there's no municipality, has no ability to compel someone to enter into treatment into shelter or otherwise.
Mayor Boileau, thank you, Councillor Curley, would it be fair that sorry, would it be fair that I guess if they if they were arrested for some reason, or a doctor, or medically, whatever the case may be, and the doctor recommended they were put into treatment centre would be the only way you could remove them from the site and put them in a treatment centre for a longer period of time to assist them, that be something that could be done?
Mayor Boileau, so I think again, that's outside of the realm of what the municipality can do or housing system managers. So, I think that, you know, you're hitting the right points in the sense that these might be some options in terms of how to address some of the situations that are manifesting themselves in encampments. But that wouldn’t be the role of the municipality necessarily. And so that's something that's a broader societal question that I don't think we have the time to address.
Councillor Curley, I just thought if policing could arrest them, then that could take place.
Mayor Boileau, you make a very important point that humans do have the right to adequate housing, and humans maintain their sense of agencies over where they get to be, and so discussion about moving people, we have to be very mindful about how we're having that conversation. The municipality can’t move people per say, and when keeps, that agencies, and homelessness isn't a crime and so I think that that's something that we have to keep in mind as well as the municipality. So, considering that there is no decision to be made tonight, we had quite a bit of discussion on this item. We had a discussion on this item at this council table many times before, definitely heard Councillor Black’s call for some solutions to come back, that we want to keep looking for solutions and so definitely looking forward to continuing, having discussions as we move forward into the summer months.
