Ottawa set to bypass Ford government with money to end encampments

Ottawa plans to cut Ontario out of its encampment funding plans after the feds say the provincial government refused to respond to a recent letter.

The Trudeau government is threatening to bypass Queen’s Park on funding to address encampments in municipalities, Global News has learned, potentially cutting the province out of decisions on how the money should be spent.

In mid-September, Canada’s Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser sent a letter to provinces with an offer of $250 million to help find shelter for people living in encampments.

Fraser said while the federal government was initially looking for cost-matching agreements with provinces, the Ontario government didn’t respond to the offer forcing Ottawa to go directly to municipalities.

“We will no longer wait for them to muster the political will to act as winter gets closer and lives are put at risk,” Fraser said in a statement shared with Global News.

A source in the Ontario government said conversations had been ongoing between the two sides since Ottawa sent its initial letter on Sept. 18.

Three other provinces — Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan – also did not respond and will also be bypassed, the federal government said.

With colder weather approaching, Fraser said the government would approach six municipalities — including Toronto — which could “quickly adopt cost-matched responses” and would be approaching more cities with direct funding offers.

At an unrelated announcement in Toronto on Tuesday morning, city officials said they were increasing temporary shelter capacity as the cold weather of winter approaches. The city said it would add 530 spaces by expanding programs that are already in place and opening 24 hour respite sites.