The Ontario government has begun distributing up to $75.5 million to municipalities to address the issue of homeless encampments in public spaces.
The initiative was announced late last year before the winter break, when the government also promised to pass a bill aimed to give municipalities more powers to deal with the homeless encampments.
The bill would, among other things, strengthen penalties for people who repeatedly break trespass laws, adding "continuous trespassing" as an aggravating factor courts would consider during sentencing, besides allowing police and provincial offences officers to ticket or arrest people using illegal drugs in public, with penalties of up to $10,000 or six months in jail.