Mayor’s Monday Mailbag – August 19, 2024 - What is the ‘Solve the Crisis’ Campaign and how can I learn more?
Welcome to the Mayor’s Monday Mailbag, an initiative Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and the Mayor’s Office launched to share weekly answers to questions from the public we’ve received through our main email inbox at mayor@burlington.ca or the Mayor’s social media platforms.
At the end of the month, we publish a roundup of those most pressing questions we’ve received in the weeks prior.
Mayor’s Monday Mailbag – August 19, 2024
Q: What is the ‘Solve the Crisis’ Campaign and how can I learn more?
Earlier this month, Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) – representing the province’s largest 29 municipalities – launched the Solve the Crisis Campaign to call on the province to take charge of solving the homelessness crisis unfolding across our cities.
A toxic combination of dangerous drugs, inadequate mental-health supports, increased cost-of-living, and a lack of housing options for people in vulnerable situations has left Ontario’s cities with crisis levels of homelessness, mental health and addiction issues.
The impact is concerning. Public spaces no longer feel safe for families. Emergency responders are spending more time on calls for citizens in mental-health crises or who have overdosed. Shelters and treatment facilities are overloaded, employees at libraries and community centres are having to serve as front-line aid workers.
Ontario’s Big City Mayors are calling on the province to appoint a single ministry and minister to take charge of solving the homelessness crisis unfolding across our cities. Municipalities cannot tackle this crisis alone.
We need support from the community. Take part in the campaign by calling your MPP and MP, the premier and key cabinet ministers to ask them to take action. At SolveTheCrisis.ca you can write your elected officials and share details about how the crisis has affected you, your neighbourhoods and businesses.
Further details about the campaign are available at SolveTheCrisis.ca. To read more about our reason for calling on the Province, how you can help, and why there’s hope, read my latest op-ed in the Toronto Star: Librarians and teenage community centre workers shouldn’t have to serve as front-line aid workers. As the mayor of a big city, I’m asking the province to step in
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