Two months in and the City of Barrie is progressing with its mission to get rid of encampments and decontaminate those areas, but there's no light at the end of the tunnel just yet.
At a press conference at City Hall Friday morning, Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall provided an update regarding the city's collaborative cleanup efforts along with the County of Simcoe, 66 days since he declared a state of emergency to address homeless encampments.
In that time, he says the city successfully cleared 39 such locations, and has addressed 47 encampments in some way, up from 35 on September 9. There are currently eight active encampments on municipally-owned property in Barrie.
Outreach efforts have supported the transition of 68 people into from encampments to safe indoor spaces. However, the City still estimates 45 to 50 individuals are still living in at encampments in Barrie, down from 111 an estimate when the declaration was made.
Also, 200 individuals have connected with the HART of Simcoe County Navigation Team to enter the County's pathway program to securing permanent housing.
Cleanups at the two largest sites have taken place, one at Dyment's Creek, and one at Audrey Milligan Park and Pond. While the former effort has been completed, the Milligan's Pond cleanup is expected to take week. Both remain closed until further notice.
A report from the Dyment's Creek cleanup, which has incurred $1.2 million in costs and counting, required the removal of 409 tonnes of waste. Nuttall says that tonnage is equivalent to six days of waste collection for all residential properties in the city, or two per cent of the City's landfill's annual agglomeration.
At the press conference, Nuttall signed a strong mayor motion that will direct City staff to add Audrey Milligan's Pond and Park as part of lands to be included in the Conservation Trust when the report is presented to General Committee.
"When the encampment cleanup is complete over in Milligan's Pond, we will start the process of ensuring what is an environmental beauty and a piece of Barrie's natural heritage and Lake Simcoe's natural heritage is preserved for future generations," Nuttall said.
"We need to restore it to the beauty that it once had and make it available for citizens to be able to access and be living in a beautiful city like Barrie, but still have the opportunity to walk through natural areas."
The cost of the cleanup at that site is yet to be announced.
The mayor was also non-committal to fencing off the Milligan's Pond site, as was the case at Dyment's Creek.
Despite the progress made over the last two months, Nuttall says the City isn't budging on its idea of success.
"Our position is that when there are no tents and the folks that are in encampments are in housing and all of the wrap-around supports are in place, that's when we will permanently lift the emergency order," he says. "Until then, we will continue down the path that we have and certainly work through every single tent with every single individual to get them into those supports.
"This is not the place to have a tent, and if we need to, we'll use the bylaw resources to remove it."
Nuttall, who was recently in British Columbia, was reaffirmed by the trip that the issues seen in Barrie are happening across Canada. But, he was also reminded of his feelings that the federal government didn't step in to address the issue despite pleas when he was the MP for Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte.
"If you had had a government that had actually interceded with providing rehabilitative supports and rehabilitative services and drug prevention plans, we wouldn't be in this horrible, horrible emergency we're in today."
That riding's current MP, Doug Shipley, who served on Barrie City Council when Nuttall had his seat in Ottawa, also reiterated his view that encampments and addictions are coast-to-coast issues after a summer trip to the Prairies. It was when he returned that Shipley says he had discussions with Nuttall on the issue.
Nuttall says that compared to other provinces, Ontario has the "most onerous standards" to remove an encampment in the country, which are allowing their efforts to take place.
Among other efforts since September 2023 noted by the mayor included an investment of $10,000 of funding for Family Reunification Services to help those who are looking to get home to their families, and the City's prevention of over 700 ex-inmates being dropped off in downtown Barrie after being released from the Central North Correctional Centre.
