Barrie city leaders on Tuesday declared a state of emergency and announced a suite of measures aimed at dismantling high-risk homeless encampments after a string of violent incidents, widespread open-air drug use and hazardous contamination at a large downtown site.
Mayor Alex Nuttall said the declaration will allow city staff to more aggressively enforce encampment protocols, bring in outside contractors for cleanups and assemble a task force to prioritize the removal of sites judged to present the greatest public-safety risks. He cited overdoses, assaults, public indecency and open-air drug use as reasons for the move and said residents have reached a breaking point.
The immediate trigger for the declaration was the discovery of two murders and subsequent cleanup at a large-scale encampment that police dismantled last month, officials said. Police have identified 52-year-old Robert Ladouceur as the accused in the killings and said he targeted two other men who had been living at the encampment. Ladouceur faces a total of 33 charges, including first- and second-degree murder and counts of indignity to a body, authorities said.
Police said the victims were William Robinson, who disappeared in January, and David Cheesequay, reported missing at the end of July. Remains were recovered at the encampment and at an address in the town of Huntsville. "These were not random murders. Incidents like this are shocking and understandably shake our community, but they are exceedingly rare," Barrie Police Chief Richard Johnston said in a news release.
Officials also reported hazardous sanitation conditions at the encampment. Testing of a creek that runs through the site found E. coli levels as high as 921 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters of water; public-health guidance cited by the city places safe levels for recreational swimming at about 200 per 100 milliliters.
Nuttall said the city has spent millions cleaning up hazardous waste left behind after police cleared the site. "Barrie residents have had enough. Since day one, I have been clear that encampments are not acceptable in the City of Barrie," he said at a news conference. He urged people living in tents to accept available services, saying, "If someone chooses not to take it, they cannot set up camp in our public spaces and put residents at risk. If you want help, it is here. If you do not, then the message is clear. Our residents won’t tolerate encampments any longer."
The mayor said the homelessness and substance-use problems there grew substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic and include a mix of longtime residents and newcomers. In a statement shared with the Daily Mail, he blamed "decades of failed policies at higher levels of government" for leaving municipalities to cope with the consequences. He also said Barrie taxpayers have contributed millions of dollars to Simcoe County to fund housing and shelters.
Police have detailed several recent enforcement actions. Officers said they observed multiple drug transactions in the downtown area and recovered crystal meth, cocaine, hydromorphone and fentanyl, as well as thousands of dollars, crossbows, a flare gun, knives and two axes from a single tent. Four people were arrested in that operation; police charged a 28-year-old man with six counts of possession of a Schedule I substance, failure to comply with a probation order and possession of a firearm, while three others were released unconditionally.
Local business leaders and service organizations said the situation has strained the downtown economy and community supports. Paul Markle, CEO of the Barrie Chamber of Commerce, said some businesses are hiring security and upgrading systems at substantial cost. The Busby Centre, a local nonprofit that provides services to people experiencing homelessness, said the increased visibility of tents and encampments reflects complex, system-wide housing and homelessness challenges and noted demand for accessible services has risen significantly.
City officials have said the emergency measures are intended to speed cleanups and enforcement while connecting people to available services. The declaration empowers municipal staff to prioritize dismantling sites deemed high risk, to contract private crews for hazardous cleanups and to coordinate a cross-departmental response.
Advocates and service providers nationally have warned that enforcement-only approaches can displace people without addressing underlying needs such as treatment, shelter capacity and affordable housing. City officials in Barrie said they will continue to offer supports and that beds and services are available, while emphasizing the need to restore safety and public health to parks, streets and other public spaces.
The declaration places Barrie among several Canadian municipalities that have adopted emergency or expedited measures to address hazardous encampments and the effects of the opioid crisis. City leaders said the new steps are intended to be temporary tools to respond to acute public-safety hazards while a longer-term task force works on durable solutions.
Officials did not provide an exact dollar figure for the cleanup costs at the encampment beyond saying they ran into the millions. The task force established under the emergency declaration is expected to outline next steps for enforcement, cleanup and service coordination in the coming weeks.