Big city mayors want overhaul of health consent act amid ’emergency on our streets’

Mayors in Ontario’s big cities are once again calling on the province and the federal government for more tools to tackle the mental health, addiction and homelessness crises affecting their communities.

City leaders released a new slate of charges after a meeting in Markham, Ont. on Friday, including an urgent push for the province to review and update its mental health, health care consent and property invasion acts.

Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie noted that this is not the first time city leaders have raised these issues, adding that they have been united for years on the need to address drug use and open encampments.

“When I look at some of the priorities coming out of the provincial government, I have to call it out,” Guthrie said after the meeting. “We need help from the province, and we need it urgently.”

The Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) group includes 29 individual and lower-tier cities with a population of 100,000 or more. Their website claims they make up almost 70 percent of Ontario’s population.

In August, OBCM launched a campaign in which municipalities have done all they can to address encampments, addictions and mental health and need support from higher levels of government.

Friday, Vice President and London, Ont. Mayor Josh Morgan said the group was renewing its calls for help to address the “emergency on our streets”.

Mayors want to update provincial laws

The group is calling for a range of fully funded treatment programs, along with expanded court referrals for rehabilitation, rather than punishment. It is also seeking a project for plans to build supportive housing.

The OBCM also wants higher levels of government to take on intervening status in court cases that could restrict a city’s ability to block encampments, as well as legislation to ban open drug use and intoxication public

Morgan said drug use has moved beyond alleys and behind closed doors to the steps of businesses and residents’ front lawns.

The controversial positions the mayors took around forced treatment and harsh punishments for repeat violations raised concerns before the meeting. of advocacy groups, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA).

In an open letter to mayors, the CCLA said both approaches would unfairly target already vulnerable people and violate their Charter rights.

This has not stopped some mayors from defending for them. At a news conference earlier this month, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown called for “involuntary treatment” for those struggling with mental health and addictions and called on the province to make legislative changes aimed at ‘obligatory attention.

Big city mayors didn’t go that far after Friday’s meeting, calling on the province to review and update mental health and health care consent acts to reflect “current realities.”

Morgan said the updates should be considered after consultation with health workers and first responders, to determine whether to “broaden the scope” and strengthen existing mandatory mental health and addictions care.

“These acts have not been updated in a long time. The opioid crisis and the drug addiction crisis, fentanyl on our streets, were never contemplated,” Morgan said.

“The extent of the mental health crisis that we’ve seen and how widespread it is was never necessarily contemplated when these acts were written.”

CCLA calls forced treatment “dangerous.”

Harini Sivalingam, director of the CCLA’s equality program, said the organization was encouraged that the mayors had not stopped defending forced treatment.

“To do so would be extremely dangerous and … we really need to find meaningful solutions to these crises that … don’t violate the rights of some of the most vulnerable people in our society,” Sivalingam told CBC.

The OBCM is also calling on the province to re-evaluate the Trespass to Property Act to help communities respond to “aggressive and repetitive trespassing behaviour.”

Guthrie said that while the new positions are great on paper, the group shouldn’t be behind another podium, calling for help once again.

“When will the province actually act?” he asked “It has to happen, and it has to happen immediately, or more lives will be lost in our communities.”