Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall is considering using 'strong mayor' powers to direct municipal administrators to bring down the up to 20 encampments in the community, according to sources at city hall.
Sources say Nuttall would act by issuing an order to the Chief Administrative Officer to direct them to tell municipal bylaw staff to proceed with dismantling the encampments, as well as starting work with Simcoe County on developing transitional housing for the occupants of these sites.
Mayors in Ontario and the municipal police services board cannot direct the actions of their respective police forces. Nuttall's orders would make no such direction to the police, though sources say it's likely bylaw would need support from Barrie police officers in dismantling the encampments.
The latest move is being considered after a 14-year-old boy was stabbed Tuesday near the site of an encampment in Sunnidale Park in what police are describing as an "unprovoked attack." The boy was rushed to the hospital, and police are actively searching for a suspect, who has been described as a white man in his early to mid 30s, standing around five-foot-six to five-foot-nine tall.
It's not clear if the suspect lived in the encampment.
Nuttall has publicly stated that he will do whatever is necessary to protect the community, including its most vulnerable residents.
Barrie and the surrounding region has seen a flurry of the makeshift housing encampments crop up in recent years as homelessness across the country has increased by 20 per cent since 2018, according to the non-partisan Parliamentary Budget Officer.
The encampments have raised concerns around public safety owing to their locations near schools and other places children and the elderly congregate. Many cities in the province have struggled with the best approach to managing the sites as they often lack suitable housing alternatives for the people living there.
For example, the City of Ottawa says its last resort is dismantling the roughly 375 encampments located within that community.
Nuttall would be the first municipal leader in Ontario to use the 'strong mayor' provinces recently granted by the province to dismantle encampments. The Ford government awarded strong mayor powers to over 25 municipalities over the past two years, mostly as part of an effort to speed up housing construction. They gave the mayor, among other powers, the ability to unilaterally appoint the CEO and assign them duties.
City hall sources say Nutall is using the strong mayor powers because council isn't meeting over the summer and action is needed urgently to bring down the encampments.