"It is dangerous": Province reacts to Edmonton mayor's call for housing emergency
Only hours after Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi called a special meeting of council where he said he’ll motion to declare a housing and houselessness emergency in that city, the provincial government issued a statement of its own.
Jason Nixon, Alberta’s minister of seniors, community and social services, said Sohi’s remarks about Edmonton’s homelessness situation were false, adding that they would only cause more problems.
“Anyone needing shelter space will be kept care of,” Nixon said in the statement.
“It is completely inappropriate and dangerous for the mayor, or anyone, to suggest Edmonton is out of capacity in our social services sector or our emergency shelter systems.”
Sohi called the special meeting on Thursday in reaction to the clearances and closures of encampments across Edmonton over recent weeks.
He also said that the way these closures were being handled did not align with Edmonton’s commitment to reconciliation.
“Encampments are not new and are a symptom of systemic issues,” Sohi said.
“The number of unhoused people in Edmonton has doubled since 2019. Currently, the number of people flowing into houselessness exceeds the capacity of our social system.”
Nixon, however, disagrees.
“I have said before and will continue to say: there is safe space in shelters around the city and nobody will be turned away,” he said.
“We have more than enough room for every homeless person in the city of Edmonton to have a warm, safe place to stay.”
If the city council approves this emergency declaration, Sohi said his first action will be to invite Provincial Minister Jason Nixon, Federal Minister Sean Fraser and Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty 6 Cody Thomas to join him in an emergency meeting so all levels of government can sit at the same table and take action together.
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