Edmonton and the UCP Head into Battle over Clearing Tent Camps in Bitter Cold

In a blog post published Thursday, Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said he has called a special meeting of city council today to ask for a declaration of a housing and homelessness emergency in the city.

The United Conservative Party government was clearly not happy with this development and published a statement criticizing Sohi and denying the seriousness of the problem a couple of hours after the post appeared.

With the outside temperature dipping below -30 C Thursday and forecasts calling for colder temperatures in the next few days, Sohi indicated dissatisfaction with the continuing encampment clearances by the Edmonton Police Service and city staff.

“Recent actions at encampment clearances may not be in line with our commitments to upholding reconciliation, and our obligation of care in communities across the city,” Sohi wrote. “I had hoped that the changes that were made to the High-Risk Encampment Response after our meeting with members of the social sector, EPS and City Administration would have addressed some gaps, but it is clear more changes are needed.”

“If City Council approves this emergency declaration,” the mayor wrote, “my first action will be to invite provincial Minister Jason Nixon, federal Minister Sean Fraser and Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty 6 Cody Thomas to join me in an emergency meeting so all levels of government can sit at the same table and take action together.

“Declaring an emergency on housing and houselessness will be useless without fast and meaningful action,” he continued. “We need co-ordination of planning, immediate increase in investments, and human-centred and reconciliation-focused action.”

“The time for talk is over, we need co-ordinated action now,” he wrote.

The provincial statement from deputy premier Mike Ellis, a former Calgary police officer, spun the cold-weather clearances as an effort to help the homeless.

“Alberta’s government cares deeply about vulnerable Edmontonians and we will always ensure that anyone who wants shelter and supportive services will receive it,” Ellis said.

“However, we will not stand by and watch as vulnerable Albertans and the general public continue to be extorted, taken advantage of and killed by gangsters and deadly drugs,” he added hyperbolically, setting the stage, one supposes, for the UCP’s planned involuntary drug treatment legislation.

The government statement included a comment from Nixon, who is the minister of seniors, community and social services, taking direct aim at Sohi. “It is dangerous for the mayor and others to continue to suggest that vulnerable Albertans do not have anywhere to turn. This is false and will lead to more folks choosing not to seek out shelter because they fear they’ll be turned away."

“There is safe space in shelters around the city and nobody will be turned away,” Nixon said. “We have more than enough room for every homeless person in the city of Edmonton to have a warm, safe place to stay. It is completely inappropriate and dangerous for the mayor, or anyone, to suggest Edmonton is out of capacity in our social services sector or our emergency shelter systems. Anyone needing shelter space will be kept care of.”

This was presumably the government’s response to Sohi’s argument that Edmonton’s long-standing housing crisis has escalated to an emergency and that “there are many reasons why an unhoused Edmontonian might not access a shelter.”

“They may be in a relationship and don’t want to be separated from their partner, may have pets or may have important physical belongings they don’t want to part with,” the mayor said. “I have heard these stories directly from unhoused individuals, and these concerns are valid.”

“Although it is true that crime is occurring, public discussions have stigmatized and criminalized poverty,” Sohi said elsewhere in his blog. “Being unhoused must not be criminalized. This perception is making it harder for partners to house people who need it.”

“Implementing Minimum Shelter Standards will be a key area where intergovernmental collaboration is needed,” Sohi added. “I will focus part of the discussion with Minister Nixon and Minister Fraser on how we can support shelter providers to adopt Edmonton’s Minimum Shelter Standards.”

Of course, the province is unlikely to look positively on the idea of minimum standards for housing those most in need, because it would cost money and run contrary to the view common in UCP circles that prosperity is evidence of virtue.

Ellis’s message touted the work of the government’s Edmonton public safety cabinet committee. He promised it will make a “more detailed” statement after the courts rule on the effort by advocates for unhoused Edmontonians to have the removals declared a violation of the Charter rights of people who depend on the camps for shelter.