A councillor for the City of Windsor says a by-law to ticket those panhandling in the city is the absolute wrong thing council can do to address homelessness and poverty in the region.
Ward 9 councillor, Kieran McKenzie, was opposed to a motion put forward during the Environment, Transportation and Public Safety Standing Committee meeting which could see potential tickets being handed out from by-law enforcement officers for those who are aggressively panhandling.
Ward 3 councillor Renaldo Agostino put forward a motion to approve the report to proceed with a by-law aimed at addressing aggressive, intimidating and dangerous panhandling practices.
Agostino, as well as many other councillors, expressed during the meeting that he wasn't particularly for the ticketing aspect of the report, however felt it was necessary to approve it to see what other measures and tools could be provided.
McKenzie says bringing a law enforcement tool is the wrong thing that council can do to address these issues.
"We need to be looking at the various root causes of poverty, and the various root causes of why people are seeking other means to supplement their income, and work towards addressing the issues from that perspective."
He says it was acknowledged during the meeting that the ticketing aspect doesn't work.
"Why don't we just do something that actually does work, or that could potentially have an impact rather than proceeding with something that we know will be ineffective. That was expressed by almost all of the councillors who supported us to proceed with the implementation of the by-law. They all acknowledged that the tool doesn't work. So why are we doing this at all?"
McKenzie adds that he's concerned with the legal risks associated with the continuing forward with the by-law.
"And there are people across Canada that are waiting, people in the legal field, that are waiting for their opportunity to test the opportunity for municipality or any entity to create laws that legislate against people who are impoverished."
Tori Jenkins, Staff Lawyer for Legal Assistance of Windsor was a delegate during the meeting and says there are facts to support that ticketing those who are panhandling isn't effective.
"This doesn't generate any revenue for the city. Only three per cent of these fines are getting paid. There's no indication that the implementation of this by-law would result in higher compliance or more deterrence."
Jenkins says she can guarantee that there will be legal challenges that come with approving a by-law such as this one.
"The appearance of discrimination for a particular group of individuals is also very important when looking at the legal analysis. So while it may not be that the panhandling by-law says 'we're going to target the homeless population, or low income population', if in its practice it appears that way, that's going to be a significant challenge for the city in enforcing this."
The issue now goes to city council for consideration.
The call for a bylaw was raised by Ward 1 councillor Fred Francis as a way to address panhandling issues beyond the tools available to police under the Ontario Safe Streets Act, which is also targeted at aggressive solicitation.
Administration reported that between 2019 and 2022, 199 charges were laid under the Ontario Safe Streets Act by Essex OPP, Leamington OPP and Windsor police, with 177 of those charges laid by WPS alone.
Of the 199 charges, 111 were laid against someone with an address while 88 were against a defendant with no fixed address. 189 of those charges were unpaid according to the report.