'Addictions and homelessness': Mayors to target mental health support at AMO Conference
Municipal politicians will get a chance to discuss their biggest needs with the province at this week’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa, Ont.
For the first time in three years, the conference returns in-person and with one-on-one meetings with provincial ministers, and gives municipal officials the chance to talk about shared challenges.
“We have seven members of council going and the mayor and we're going to be meeting with about 14 provincial ministers,” says Josh Morgan, London’s deputy mayor.
He adds, “We're going to be discussing is London's challenges with homelessness, mental health and addictions. We've got joint delegations with the county on that, and the Ontario big city mayors have also called for an emergency meeting with the province on this issue. It's really something that a number of municipalities are facing.”
St. Thomas, Ont. Mayor Joe Preston and his team have put together a platform of issues they’ll be discussing including regional transportation, supportive housing and improved school board relations to reduce the amount of portables in elementary schools.
“We also really want to talk more about how to better handle addictions and mental health at a street level,” says Preston.
“The best ideas at conferences like this come from somebody else,” he says. “We want to ask others what they are doing in their communities and how it works for them. Many are asking us how have you done, what you've done in reducing homelessness or reducing supportive housing, and we're happy to share with the work we've done.”
Both Preston and Morgan say municipalities can’t handle this issue on their own. They need provincial and federal dollars to build capital, and provincial dollars to fund operations of facilities.
Don Trepanier, director of the Annex in St. Thomas, Ont. hopes the province will provide funding for detox treatment after the AMO Conference in Ottawa, Ont. this week. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)On Talbot Street in St. Thomas, the newly opened Annex is an addiction resource centre, who has signed on 44 new clients in the 39 days they’ve been open.
“Since we've opened our doors, [we've] become very aware of the fact that we are a small city but we have the big city trappings of homelessness, mental health issues and addictions,” says Don Trepanier, director of the Annex.
He adds, “Our focus is addictions and one of the things that we have become aware of is that we don't have any resources in St. Thomas. When we have treatment beds, if we're talking about detox, we have to go outside of the city, and that's a huge barrier to rehabilitation and recovery.”
Trepanier has been speaking with Preston, and expressed his concerns ahead of the AMO Conference.
“I'd love to hear the mayor of St. Thomas come back from that meeting to be able to say, ‘Yes we have funding for detox beds and some treatment beds here in St. Thomas,’” says Trepanier.
‘’It's just really something that this community is missing. This community needs this very much because it's a barrier to anybody who's in St. Thomas to even consider detox or treatment,” he adds.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
What's a Barnacle? It's yellow, sticks and screams if you try to pry it off your car
Barnacles, bright yellow devices used to make sure parking scofflaws pay their tickets, could soon be making their way to cities across Canada.
They were from different countries and barely spoke each other's languages. More than 20 years later, they're still happily in love
He decided to spend Christmas somewhere that wouldn't involve snowstorm disasters. She was spending the holidays with family, travelling for the first time outside of her native country of Venezuela. 23 years later, they're still in love.
Man who set himself on fire outside Trump trial dies of injuries, police say
A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former U.S. President Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said.
Young people 'tortured' if stolen vehicle operations fail, Montreal police tell MPs
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
Verdun Airbnb listing taken down amid complaints, fines and frustration from neighbours
An Airbnb in Montreal's Verdun borough was the source of much frustration from neighbours who say there were constant parties at the location. It has been taken down from the app, but housing advocates remain upset about short-term rentals.
Fire in Labrador town under control, officials tells residents to stay away
RCMP say the fire that prompted a state of emergency in a Labrador town is now under control.
12 students and teacher killed in Columbine school shooting remembered at 25th anniversary vigil
Thirteen victims of the Columbine High School shooting were remembered during a vigil Friday on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the shooting that was the worst the nation had seen at the time.
Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza city of Rafah kills at least 9 Palestinians, including 6 children
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza's southernmost city killed at least nine people, six of them children, hospital authorities said Saturday, as Israel pursued its nearly seven-month offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Mandisa, Grammy award-winning 'American Idol' alum, dead at 47
Soulful gospel artist Mandisa, a Grammy-winning singer who got her start as a contestant on 'American Idol' in 2006, has died, according to a statement on her verified social media. She was 47.