Orillia mayor keeps watchful eye amid Barrie’s state of emergency on encampments

Orillia’s mayor said he could follow Barrie’s lead in declaring a state of emergency to address encampments.

It has been over two weeks since the City of Barrie declared a state of emergency regarding encampments and since then, communities across Simcoe County have reported a slight increase in people experiencing homelessness, including Midland and Orillia.

According to the Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac, there are about half a dozen encampments in the Sunshine City.

“A bit of a concern. Obviously we guard our properties carefully,” said McIsaac. “There’s an encampment behind the rec centre that caught on fire and caused a fair amount of damage to the property, and we’re obviously monitoring that carefully.”

That fire happened Monday evening and ripped through the Orillia homeless encampment destroying people’s belongings.

Fire Chief Chris Ferry told CTV News that fires in encampments are common in the city.

• Take the poll: Do you agree with the mayor’s approach to cleaning up encampments?

“We’ve had a few encampment fires; it’s not infrequent for us,” said Ferry. “We do respond to encampment fires throughout the year, but in the last two weeks, we’ve had three or four fires that have been larger and have taken us longer to put out.”

The encampment fire behind the Orillia Recreation Centre was in a wooded area off a walking path.

• Fire rips through Orillia homeless encampment destroying people’s belongings

Ferry added that the fire department had to call in external fire departments from Ramara Township and Rama Township for additional resources.

“So, some of the encampments here in Orillia we can get to with our own equipment, but this one we had the other night was further back in the bush and off-road,” said Ferry. “So, we requested the assistance of the Ramara and Rama fire departments with their UTVs to help us get back.”

With McIsaac complimenting Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall on how he has been dealing with the problem.

“I think Mayor Nuttall put on a masterclass in terms of how to deal with this problem, and it’s a sensitive issue,” said McIsaac. “This council at the start establishes a priority of helping the most vulnerable, and we continue to do that, but if you have an addiction to alcohol or opioids, or experience homelessness, or are dealing with a mental health crisis and you do not want help, Orillia is not your place.”

McIsaac added he would not hesitate to declare a state of emergency if the situation in Orillia got worse.

“Absolutely, there’s no question that the safety of citizens is paramount, and if it got to the point where we had to declare an emergency, we wouldn’t hesitate,” said McIsaac.