The Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) are back, calling for more action to end the province-wide mental health, addiction and homelessness crisis. According to Homeless Hub, the unhoused population across Ontario went up, increasing from 81,515 to 84,973 between 2024 and 2025. “The number one issue facing our communities is drug use on the streets and we’ve got to get serious with how we’re going to deal with that,” Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall tells CTV News. “It’s outside of the levers of a local municipal council,” Nuttall says. Among its many requests of the province, the OBCM is asking for a review of the Mental Health Act and the Health Care Consent Act. Nuttall on mandatory rehabilitation In an interview on Monday, Alex Nuttall tells CTV News the purpose of the review is “to allow for mandatory rehabilitation for compassionate intervention.” “We’ve seen a major shift amongst mayors and regional leaders to move forward with compassionate intervention and really trying to focus and hone in on dealing with recovery and not allowing for individuals to be left on the street in our cities and towns anymore,” Nuttall adds. According to Nuttall, all 29 municipalities within the organization voted for the review of the already existing legislation. “Cities and towns have done everything we can, we’ve invested major amounts of money on behalf of the taxpayer to clean up the streets,” Nuttall says. “We’ve really looked at every lever to removing encampments,” he adds, “there are fundamental legal changes that need to take place on the provincial and federal level, to a lesser extent, to allow for recovery to happen inside of our communities,” Nuttall says. “We need the premier and the cabinet to adopt what we’re asking for,” Nuttaaall adds. Premier’s response On Monday, Premier Doug Ford was in Ottawa for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario Conference. Ford did not directly speak to the concerns of the OBCM. However, in his speech on Monday, Ford maintained the province is “working with municipalities.” “We’re cleaning up our streets, cracking down on crime so people can feel safe again in their own communities,” Ford says. “We’re shutting down safe injection sites, clearing encampments at our parks and fixing the broken bail system to keep violent, repeat criminals behind bars,” Ford adds. CTV News reached out to the premier’s office to ask for a response to the OBCM’s requests. The Ministry of Health replied to CTV News. “Our government will continue to make the investments necessary to protect Ontario communities while ensuring people struggling with addiction and mental health challenges have a pathway to treatment,” a spokesperson with the Ministry of Health says. The ministry says its 28 Homelessness and Addictions Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs opened across Ontario have helped more than 100,000 people struggling with mental health issues get support and connected them with treatment/recovery options. RELATED: What does a typical journey for a HART Hub client look like? According to the ministry, the province has delegated $14 billion across Ontario’s towns and cities to build more homes, improve access to supportive housing and expand homelessness support. The ministry says Ontario has also invested more than $560 million into building a total of 29 Hart Hubs across the province, aimed at replacing drug injection sites. That investment is part of its $3.8 billion ‘roadmap to wellness,’ which aims to add 500 new addiction recovery beds across Ontario along with 1,200 new supportive housing units, the ministry says. “We expect (the municipalities) to use these resources and record funding, to continue to expand mental health and addiction services, create more supportive housing, address homelessness and help keep their communities safe,” the ministry adds. CMHA: Involuntary treatment could be harmful The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) also chimed in on the topic of mandatory rehabilitation, the organization saying it understands the pressures faced by Ontario’s municipalities. “Before we consider expanding the scope of mandatory treatment programs, we must first ensure that those who want help can access timely, high-quality voluntary care,” says Dr. Leslie Buckley, Chief of the Addictions Division at CAMH. RELATED: Barrie addiction recovery centre for women gets green light “Any decision to expand mandatory treatment could have significant clinical, ethical and safety implications,” Buckley says. According to CAMH, there is no evidence to suggest involuntary treatment is more or less effective than voluntary treatment. CMHA claims that involuntary treatment may create further potential harm to those in need, suggesting it may increase the risk of overdose upon discharge of the patient or even reduce future motivation to seek medical help in the future. Additional OBCM requests: funding, prison care, state of emergency Among its other requests, the OBCM is asking for funding to increase timely access to recovery and treatment programs by investing more into HART Hubs and other similar voluntary recovery programming. The organization is also asking for the dedicated mental health and addictions minister and ministry with “decision making authority and the appropriate funding.” Currently, Vijay Thanigasalam serves as Ontario’s Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, which falls under the Ministry of Health, led by Minister Sylvia Jones. The OBCM is also calling upon the upper levels of government to expand addiction treatment and programming within provincial and federal correctional institutions as well. Lastly, the organization says it wants the government to declare a state of emergency on homelessness, mental health and addictions to highlight the growing crisis and to unlock appropriate supports at both provincial and federal levels.
