Region, Ontario appeal court decision on Victoria Street encampment

The province and the Region of Waterloo announced the governments will appeal a recent decision on the Victoria Street encampment that prevented the clearing of people staying on the land.

In a press release, the government notes that the encampment, at 100 Victoria St. in Kitchener, is on the same piece of land slated for the Kitchener Central Transit Hub, which it calls a “critical piece of infrastructure needed to improve transit options.”

Last month, Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael Gibson ruled the region’s site-specific bylaw to clear the encampment and its amendments violated the Charter rights of the residents and therefore could not be enforced.

The ruling came about a month after court proceedings concluded with Justice Gibson reserving his decision to allow him time to fully consider the case.

“Our government is appealing this decision in order to provide the certainty and stability needed to advance critical infrastructure projects here in Waterloo Region and across Ontario,” Attorney General Doug Downey, said in the press release June 16.

Speaking to 570 NewsRadio, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Rob Flack, laid out the province’s position clearly.

“Bottom line is this: we can not let an encampment of 30 to 35 people, and I’ll come back and say we need to protect those people in the process, but we can not let an encampment delay major infrastructure investments across the Waterloo Region or, for that matter, across Ontario.”

Gibson’s 88-page decision boiled down to the fact that there simply isn’t adequate shelter space to accommodate the residents. That, coupled with bylaws that prevent camping on regional property, means that once evicted, some residents would have nowhere to go.

The Justice did provide the region with options that would allow the encampment residents’ charter rights to be respected while also getting construction underway.

One option was to select a new site for the encampment in the general vicinity of the current location. Or create a new safe tenting protocol, like what’s in place in communities like Guelph and Hamilton.

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But Flack said the province is looking at the big picture.

“But really, what the judge presented, understand, respect his decision, but that is a short-term, band-aid solution. I’m interested in long-term solutions, like we are when we come back to the major transit area. We have to create jobs. We have to create homes. We can’t let an encampment stop us.”

Ashely Schuitema, Executive Director, Waterloo Region Community Legal Services, was a guest on The Mike Farwell Show last week, where she spoke about the options proposed by Justice Gibson and recognized that, yes, indeed, those options are stopgap measures.

“People don’t like encampments, but it is just the reality of where we’re living. We don’t have enough housing. We need to solve that, but in the meantime, we need something better than just continuously evicting people and displacing them,” she said.

In the statement, Regional Chair, Karen Redman said, “The Kitchener Central Transit Hub is a transformative project that will serve residents for generations, improving connections to jobs, housing, education and transit throughout our region and beyond.”

She went on to say, “At the same time, Waterloo Region has significantly increased its investment in housing and homelessness supports over the past several years because we recognize that building strong communities requires both social supports and critical infrastructure. This appeal is about ensuring municipalities have clarity on how to move forward with both of these important responsibilities.”

The region has said it plans to file the appeal in the coming days.