Latest news with #AislinnClancy
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
2 opposition MPPs have created a plan to solve Ontario's homelessness crisis in 10 years. Could it work?
A Green and Liberal MPP have worked together to develop a plan they say could fix the Ontario housing crisis in 10 years. Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy and Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP Lee Fairclough are co-sponsoring a private member's bill that they say creates a housing-first plan. Experts CBC News spoke to say while not perfect, if passed, the bill would take important steps to really addressing the homelessness crisis being felt in municipalities across Ontario. Bill 28, Homelessness Ends with Housing Act includes the creation of a portable housing benefit, setting up an advisory committee of people with expertise and collecting data on supportive housing to make sure the province is meeting its targets. "Every Ontarian deserves a stable, safe, affordable place to live, and this new legislation offers a solution and a clear path rooted in evidence, compassion and a commitment to housing as a human right," Clancy said in a news conference on Tuesday. Fairclough says the causes of homelessness need to be addressed to find real solutions. "We have the data, we have the road maps and as this bill references, housing first is a proven policy to end chronic homelessness," Fairclough said. Kelly Welch, who is from Waterloo region and has been precariously housed, said at times she only had $20 in her pocket. That meant she had to find ways to navigate the system on her own and she feels like that experience could be invaluable to the government. "I support this bill and sharing that lived experience because we do come up with solutions," she said at the news conference. "I would like to lift up the lived experience of others and to share those because everyone deserves a home and having safe, secure housing was that first step to building my life." WATCH | : Growing number of people experiencing homelessness A report released by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario in January 2025 said more than 80,000 Ontarians were known to be homeless in 2024, a 25 per cent increase over 2022. "Ontario is at a tipping point in its homelessness crisis," the report warned, noting without "significant intervention" the number of people who are homeless in the province could triple by 2035. It noted 25 per cent of those experiencing homelessness were children and youth, while Indigenous people were disproportionately affected, with 45 per cent of people experiencing chronic homelessness in northern communities identifying as Indigenous. "In northern Ontario, known homelessness has risen by an estimated 204 per cent since 2016, growing from 1,771 people to 5,377 people in 2024," the report said. Meanwhile, Ontario's cities have reported an increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers who need help to find stable housing. "The growing pressures of Ontario's homelessness crisis are felt most acutely at the local level. Municipal governments are tasked with responding to immediate needs while trying to deal with infrastructure gaps that limit their ability to address long-term solutions," the report said. "Communities are deeply affected, with individuals and families enduring the trauma of homelessness and neighbourhoods saying that long-term homelessness and people living outdoors are unacceptable, demanding urgent action from governments." Housing first works: Expert The concept of "housing first" is a major part of the private member's bill from Clancy and Fairclough and it means people should be given housing as a first step to helping them with other issues. Carolyn Whitzman, an adjunct professor and senior housing researcher at the University of Toronto, says she says it's always great when politicians understand that providing housing "is the only proven way to end homelessness." "I would hope that this understanding transcends politics, because it will take a generation to end homelessness and co-ordinated action from all levels of government, most of all provinces," she told CBC News in an email. She pointed to Finland, which has implemented a housing-first approach and aims to end homelessness completely by 2027. Maritt Kirst is an associate professor in the community psychology program at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo and also the co-director of the Centre for Community Research, Learning, and Action and the director of Community Mental Health Research Interest Group. She says she commended the MPPs for including the housing-first approach into their bill. "While the largest research trial of housing first was conducted in Canada in 2008 to 2013 — the At Home/Chez Soi Project — and contributed significant amounts of evidence on the success of the housing-first program, Canada lags behind in implementing this approach compared to other countries," she said in an email. Kirst said another important part of the private member's bill is developing an advisory committee of people with lived experience. "It is critical to include the voices of people with lived experience in the development of any policy initiative in order to accurately reflect the needs of the population and what works for them," Kirst said. "The enactment of a bill such as this would support a much needed shift away from governments' heavy reliance on Band-Aid solutions like emergency shelters and approaches that criminalize people experiencing homelessness, towards effective solutions to end homelessness in Ontario." Kaite Burkholder Harris, the executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa and co-chair of the Ontario Alliance to End Homelessness, says she also appreciates the focus on housing first and it is a reachable goal. "If we were to properly resource and actually build boatloads of non-profit housing, I think that we could see it seriously change in a relatively short period of time," she said in an interview. She said the current path the province is on will not solve the homelessness crisis in the next decade. Burkholder Harris says with Bill 6 — the Safer Municipalities Act which is currently in the committee stage and which would create harsher penalties if someone were caught using drugs or alcohol in a tent and for trespassing infractions — the province is "criminalizing the experience of being homeless." Burkholder Harris says there's also a misconception everyone who is homeless has complex needs but she says some people simply just need a place to live. "Some people who are very unwell, they do need a certain type of housing," she said. "Many people are waking up and going to work in the morning … and they have a minimum wage job and they can't afford rent," she said, noting if someone falls behind in their rent and gets evicted, it can take time for them to save up again to afford first and last month rent in their area. "But those folks, if they get stuck in being homeless, they are going to develop more complex needs," she said. Data collection needed to develop a strategy Dawn Parker is a professor in the school of planning at the University of Waterloo and says her first impression of the private member's bill is that would take an important step in gathering much needed data about what is happening in the province. "Politically, this is not a strategy to end homelessness. I don't think a real strategy to end homelessness has any chance of passing the legislature at this point during this government," Parker said. "What really this bill proposes is to start tracking, seriously start tracking data, on homelessness and housing for those who've been homeless or who fall back into homelessness. Beyond that, it asks the province to develop a strategy." Parker says the Green party and NDP in Ontario and nationally have put forward practical solutions to tackle different aspects of housing and why it's become unaffordable, including building non-profit housing on public lands, implementing vacant home taxes and using inclusionary zoning, which require private developers to include a certain percentage of affordable units within new, multi-unit housing developments. None of the advice is new, she says, noting she started talking to media about missing middle housing nearly a decade ago. "Housing experts have been saying the same things over and over and over and over again for years on end," Parker said. "We keep giving the same advice. It's up to the province when and how they take up that advice." Parker says she hopes the current Ontario government really considers what is in the Liberal-Green private member's bill because really, what it's recommending is getting more information to make better decisions. "This is a quite benign bill that mainly calls for consistent reporting and data tracking. I would hope that it could pass," she said. "If it doesn't happen, why not? Why is there a fear of information? We should all value and support efforts to bring data and daylight to the problems that we face, so we're all talking from the same information and about the same things."
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
2 opposition MPPs have created a plan to solve Ontario's homelessness crisis in 10 years. Could it work?
A Green and Liberal MPP have worked together to develop a plan they say could fix the Ontario housing crisis in 10 years. Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy and Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP Lee Fairclough are co-sponsoring a private member's bill that they say creates a housing-first plan. Experts CBC News spoke to say while not perfect, if passed, the bill would take important steps to really addressing the homelessness crisis being felt in municipalities across Ontario. Bill 28, Homelessness Ends with Housing Act includes the creation of a portable housing benefit, setting up an advisory committee of people with expertise and collecting data on supportive housing to make sure the province is meeting its targets. "Every Ontarian deserves a stable, safe, affordable place to live, and this new legislation offers a solution and a clear path rooted in evidence, compassion and a commitment to housing as a human right," Clancy said in a news conference on Tuesday. Fairclough says the causes of homelessness need to be addressed to find real solutions. "We have the data, we have the road maps and as this bill references, housing first is a proven policy to end chronic homelessness," Fairclough said. Kelly Welch, who is from Waterloo region and has been precariously housed, said at times she only had $20 in her pocket. That meant she had to find ways to navigate the system on her own and she feels like that experience could be invaluable to the government. "I support this bill and sharing that lived experience because we do come up with solutions," she said at the news conference. "I would like to lift up the lived experience of others and to share those because everyone deserves a home and having safe, secure housing was that first step to building my life." Kitchener Centre MPP co-sponsors bill to address homelessness 5 days ago Duration 4:13 Ontario Greens deputy leader and Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy is co-sponsoring a private member's bill aimed at addressing the homelessness crisis in Ontario. The bill proposes a plan to eliminate homelessness in Ontario within 10 years by using an evidence-based, housing-first approach. People from Waterloo region joined Clancy for the press conference at Queen's Park on Tuesday. Growing number of people experiencing homelessness A report released by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario in January 2025 said more than 80,000 Ontarians were known to be homeless in 2024, a 25 per cent increase over 2022. "Ontario is at a tipping point in its homelessness crisis," the report warned, noting without "significant intervention" the number of people who are homeless in the province could triple by 2035. It noted 25 per cent of those experiencing homelessness were children and youth, while Indigenous people were disproportionately affected, with 45 per cent of people experiencing chronic homelessness in northern communities identifying as Indigenous. "In northern Ontario, known homelessness has risen by an estimated 204 per cent since 2016, growing from 1,771 people to 5,377 people in 2024," the report said. Meanwhile, Ontario's cities have reported an increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers who need help to find stable housing. "The growing pressures of Ontario's homelessness crisis are felt most acutely at the local level. Municipal governments are tasked with responding to immediate needs while trying to deal with infrastructure gaps that limit their ability to address long-term solutions," the report said. "Communities are deeply affected, with individuals and families enduring the trauma of homelessness and neighbourhoods saying that long-term homelessness and people living outdoors are unacceptable, demanding urgent action from governments." Housing first works: Expert The concept of "housing first" is a major part of the private member's bill from Clancy and Fairclough and it means people should be given housing as a first step to helping them with other issues. Carolyn Whitzman, an adjunct professor and senior housing researcher at the University of Toronto, says she says it's always great when politicians understand that providing housing "is the only proven way to end homelessness." "I would hope that this understanding transcends politics, because it will take a generation to end homelessness and co-ordinated action from all levels of government, most of all provinces," she told CBC News in an email. She pointed to Finland, which has implemented a housing-first approach and aims to end homelessness completely by 2027. Maritt Kirst is an associate professor in the community psychology program at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo and also the co-director of the Centre for Community Research, Learning, and Action and the director of Community Mental Health Research Interest Group. She says she commended the MPPs for including the housing-first approach into their bill. "While the largest research trial of housing first was conducted in Canada in 2008 to 2013 — the At Home/Chez Soi Project — and contributed significant amounts of evidence on the success of the housing-first program, Canada lags behind in implementing this approach compared to other countries," she said in an email. Kirst said another important part of the private member's bill is developing an advisory committee of people with lived experience. "It is critical to include the voices of people with lived experience in the development of any policy initiative in order to accurately reflect the needs of the population and what works for them," Kirst said. "The enactment of a bill such as this would support a much needed shift away from governments' heavy reliance on Band-Aid solutions like emergency shelters and approaches that criminalize people experiencing homelessness, towards effective solutions to end homelessness in Ontario." Some people 'stuck' being homeless Kaite Burkholder Harris, the executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa and co-chair of the Ontario Alliance to End Homelessness, says she also appreciates the focus on housing first and it is a reachable goal. "If we were to properly resource and actually build boatloads of non-profit housing, I think that we could see it seriously change in a relatively short period of time," she said in an interview. She said the current path the province is on will not solve the homelessness crisis in the next decade. Burkholder Harris says with Bill 6 — the Safer Municipalities Act which is currently in the committee stage and which would create harsher penalties if someone were caught using drugs or alcohol in a tent and for trespassing infractions — the province is "criminalizing the experience of being homeless." Burkholder Harris says there's also a misconception everyone who is homeless has complex needs but she says some people simply just need a place to live. "Some people who are very unwell, they do need a certain type of housing," she said. "Many people are waking up and going to work in the morning … and they have a minimum wage job and they can't afford rent," she said, noting if someone falls behind in their rent and gets evicted, it can take time for them to save up again to afford first and last month rent in their area. "But those folks, if they get stuck in being homeless, they are going to develop more complex needs," she said. Data collection needed to develop a strategy Dawn Parker is a professor in the school of planning at the University of Waterloo and says her first impression of the private member's bill is that would take an important step in gathering much needed data about what is happening in the province. "Politically, this is not a strategy to end homelessness. I don't think a real strategy to end homelessness has any chance of passing the legislature at this point during this government," Parker said. "What really this bill proposes is to start tracking, seriously start tracking data, on homelessness and housing for those who've been homeless or who fall back into homelessness. Beyond that, it asks the province to develop a strategy." Parker says the Green party and NDP in Ontario and nationally have put forward practical solutions to tackle different aspects of housing and why it's become unaffordable, including building non-profit housing on public lands, implementing vacant home taxes and using inclusionary zoning, which require private developers to include a certain percentage of affordable units within new, multi-unit housing developments. None of the advice is new, she says, noting she started talking to media about missing middle housing nearly a decade ago. "Housing experts have been saying the same things over and over and over and over again for years on end," Parker said. "We keep giving the same advice. It's up to the province when and how they take up that advice." Parker says she hopes the current Ontario government really considers what is in the Liberal-Green private member's bill because really, what it's recommending is getting more information to make better decisions. "This is a quite benign bill that mainly calls for consistent reporting and data tracking. I would hope that it could pass," she said. "If it doesn't happen, why not? Why is there a fear of information? We should all value and support efforts to bring data and daylight to the problems that we face, so we're all talking from the same information and about the same things."
CTV News
3 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Rally in downtown Kitchener to protest controversial provincial bills
'Rally for People and Planet' at Carl Zehr Square in downtown Kitchener on May 31, 2025. (Hannah Schmidt/CTV News) A 'Rally for People and Planet' was held in downtown Kitchener on Saturday. Dozens of people gathered at Carl Zehr Square to hear from Aislinn Clancy, the deputy leader for the Green Party of Ontario and MPP for Kitchener Centre. Rally for People and Planet Kitchener Carl Zehr Square Aislinn Clancy Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy speaks at the 'Rally for People and Planet' at Carl Zehr Square in downtown Kitchener on May 31, 2025. (Hannah Schmidt/CTV News) The event focused on two proposed provincial laws – Bill 5 and Bill 6. Bill 6 targets homeless encampments and drug use in public spaces. If passed, police officers would have more power to arrest anyone in a public space, including a tent, who is in possession of an illegal substance. Those individuals would then face tougher penalties, including up to six months in prison or a fine of up to $10,000. Advocates have argued that punitive measures often fail to address the issues causing homelessness and may, in fact, make them worse. Bill 5, meanwhile, seeks to speed up development for certain projects, like mining, and create 'special economic zones' where provincial and municipal laws would be suspended. The Ring of Fire is one the sites identified by the province.
CBC
27-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Kitchener Centre MPP co-sponsors bill to address homelessness
Ontario Greens deputy leader and Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy is co-sponsoring a private member's bill aimed at addressing the homelessness crisis in Ontario. The bill proposes a plan to eliminate homelessness in Ontario within 10 years by using an evidence-based, housing-first approach. People from Waterloo region joined Clancy for the press conference at Queen's Park on Tuesday.
CBC
03-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
MPP says Waterloo region's Catholic school board 'wasting time and taxpayer dollars' with infighting
Kitchener Centre MPP calls on province to take closer look at actions of Waterloo region's Catholic school board 21 hours ago Duration 1:12 Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy says she's concerned about the behaviour of trustees with the Waterloo Catholic District School Board and how much money they're spending on legal fees. Clancy stood during question period Tuesday in the Ontario Legislature and asked Education Minister Paul Calandra to "intervene" with the board. Clancy's statement came after a Monday night meeting where trustees discussed, and voted down, a motion to change its flag policy. There had been concerns that if the motion passed, flags — including the Pride flag — would be banned from school properties. "Ontario's education system is publicly funded and must be inclusive of all students. So I ask the minister, will you intervene and stop these trustees who are wasting time and taxpayer dollars fighting about what books should be in libraries and what flags should be on poles?" Clancy said. Clancy added outside groups, including the anti-abortion Campaign Life Coalition, have been trying to influence board decisions. In his response, Calandra did not say if he would intervene, but added he wants to make sure "school boards are focused on what matters to the people of the province of Ontario and that is ensuring that students, parents and teachers have the resources that they need in order to ensure maximum success for our students for the jobs of tomorrow." Board 'acting in good faith,' chair says In an interview on CBC K-W's The Morning Edition with Craig Norris on Friday, Clancy said it's not just the flag policy that is concerning. Clancy said she was "troubled by the division on the board and their focus on a number of things and their treatment of each other as trustees." Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy called on Ontario's education minister to demand accountability for trustees of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board. The statement at the Ontario Legislature was made the day after a motion to ban Pride flags on Waterloo Catholic school property was defeated. Clancy said Friday her office did a freedom-of-information request and found the board has spent more than $200,000 on legal fees in the past two years related to code of conduct charges and legal bills associated with that. "Some trustees, not all, were … focusing on books, and libraries and flags on posts, and also this infighting and this focusing on code of conduct sanctions, keeping trustees from participating in meetings, voting, speaking up and that is undermining democracy," Clancy said in the interview. Clancy said she felt some of the actions being taken to sanction trustees was an effort to silence people. "Don't get me wrong, it's great to get legal advice, but I think we always have to balance it out. If we are not functioning well or if there's a code of conduct charge, I think we need to be mindful of legal expenses. To me, it seemed like a high number." Board of trustees chair Renée Kraft said Clancy did not speak to the board before making her statements at Queen's Park. "We did not know she was going to be speaking about that in the Legislature. So I guess firstly, I would just say the board is not trying to silence anyone. We are acting in good faith," Kraft told CBC News in a phone interview Thursday. Kraft added the board sometimes requires legal advice. "There's no intention or direction to use legal services to silence any trustee or opposing view," Kraft said. "It's important for everyone to know that school boards, like all public institutions, sometimes require legal advice, whether it's to clarify policies, support governance processes, or ensure compliance with legislation." Hundreds attend Pride flag rally ahead of WCDSB meeting 1 month ago Duration 5:30 Hundreds of people attended a rally Monday evening ahead of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) meeting that would address its flag policy. In a notice of motion, trustees discussed banning all flags except Canadian, Ontarian or school board logo flags on WCDSB properties. That would prohibit the use of the Pride flag, something many people at the rally opposed. CBC K-W's Karis Mapp spoke with attendees both for and against the motion. Kraft became chair of the board earlier this month after former chair Robert Sikora stepped down abruptly in March. She said one of her "first priorities is to begin review of these expenditures so I can understand the full context and ensure we're being both prudent and fair in our use of resources." MPP's comments come on heels of trustee ban Clancy's comments also come after school board trustee Kathy Doherty-Masters went to court for being banned from board meetings until the end of June over a code of conduct complaint. Court documents obtained by CBC News from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Hamilton show Doherty-Masters asked for a stay of her being banned, which was decided at a December 2024 meeting. The documents, dated April 16, showed Justice John Krawchenko reviewed two affidavits — one from Doherty-Masters and the second from another Catholic school board trustee, Linda Cuff. According to the documents, the chair of the board of trustees became aware of an anonymous complaint against Doherty-Masters on Jan. 25, 2024. The complaint alleged Doherty-Masters had "acted in a conflict of interest when her husband was hired by the board to speak at an event in April 2023." In April 2024, the board retained lawyer Bruce Best to investigate the allegations. In November, Best gave a summary of his report to trustees that found Doherty-Masters had not contravened the board's code of conduct or the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. "The allegations that were investigated were not substantiated," the court documents say. The board met to consider the allegations, and on Dec. 20, 2024, Doherty-Masters received a letter saying her fellow trustees had determined she had violated the code of conduct and she was sanctioned. That meant she could not attend any board or committee meetings until June 30, 2025, and she was barred from sitting on the audit committee, the Catholic Parent Involvement Committee and the governance committee until Nov. 15, 2026, which is the end of her term as a trustee. Doherty-Masters appealed that decision, but the board "reconfirmed its earlier decision and the sanctions [were] imposed," the documents show. "The applicant [Doherty-Masters] takes issue with the jurisdiction of the board to have even initiated their investigation, the process followed by the respondent [the Waterloo Catholic District School Board], the reasonableness of their decision, and the appropriateness and proportionality of the sanctions that they imposed," the court documents say. Judge says trustee ban case raises 'serious issues' In his analysis in granting a stay in Doherty-Masters's sanctions by the board, Krawchenko wrote, "I find that there are many very serious issues and questions that need to be addressed" about the case. Krawchenko said Doherty-Masters "would suffer irreparable harm" if she continued to be barred from meetings and doing her work as a trustee. CBC K-W reached out to Doherty-Masters for comment but she said in an email that she would not be offering a comment on the situation. Doherty-Masters returned to her seat at the board of trustees meeting on Monday. Kraft said they were "pleased" to welcome her back to the board table. Kraft added she does see where there is some division between trustees, but hopes they can come together to "create a path forward where we can get back to the shared things that we do have in common." "Everyone does have a strong desire to see student success and achievement, and so just finding the way forward and while making sure all voices are heard," Kraft said. "There's been a lot going on with our board," Kraft said, adding it's time to "perhaps put some of the things that have happened in the past and create a good working relationship forward as best we can to get back to our key focuses and core mandate as trustees."
