Belleville City Council approved a recommendation to adopt the terms of reference for the newly established Understanding Homelessness Task Force.
Approval came from a meeting of council on Tuesday.
On September 26, Mayor Neil Ellis announced the creation of the task force with the goal to create an action and communication plan that can be implemented quickly to address the city’s addiction, mental health and homelessness crisis while the city awaits further support from the federal and provincial government.
The task force would consist of Mayor Ellis as chair, a council representative, Belleville Police Service representatives, Hastings County and other community partners.
In discussion of the terms of reference at the meeting, Councillor Paul Carr asked about when the issue would be jurisdictional responsibility of the provincial government and become the primary focus of the two MPPs, naming Bay of Quinte MPP Tyler Allsopp and Hastings—Lennox and Addington MPP Ric Bresee, while also asking about the intended outcomes from the task force.
“My hope is to have probably about 10 different topics, and those topics will have suggestions or an action plan of whose responsibility those topics will be (for),” Mayor Ellis explained.
“(We’ll) file this with not only ourselves, but file it with the two MPPs. I’m hoping that, doing Zoom or Microsoft Teams, we will be able to actually invite witnesses, such as deputy ministers or ministers. We will definitely invite Rick Bresee, our MPP Tyler Allsopp also, and some bureaucrats hopefully.”
Ellis says the city has spent millions of dollars on policing, EMS, and other costs from the ripple effect of homelessness in the community.
“It seems like Groundhog Day again Councilor Carr to do this, but we’re not going anywhere the way things are now, and our MPPs have to be called in,” Ellis said.
Councillor Kathryn Brown asked about what the city expects to be different from the work already done to address the issue.
Mayor Ellis said it’s about getting the message across.
He said he hopes provincial members of Parliament will be able to attend.
“Will our MPPs come to testify, or will they come to talk about this at the committee?” Ellis said.
“If they don’t come, then on record, they’re going to be called out to say, this is what they think of the City of Belleville. They’re not even interested in coming in front of us.”
Councillor Barbara Enright-Miller spoke in favour of the task force, saying there is a risk if the city doesn’t do something.
“We sort of need to put pressure on again and again and again, because it is falling on deaf ears. So I think we should leverage anything we can at this point.”
Council moved the motion to adopt the terms of reference for the task force.
The City of Belleville has been under a State of Emergency for the addiction, mental health and homelessness crisis since February 2024.
