Challenger accuses mayor of ‘bullying’ on shelter

On his first day in the Ottawa mayoral race, candidate Bruce McConville served notice it could be a bruising campaign.

McConville joined an SOS Vanier protest Saturday morning when he officially launched his bid for the city’s top job with a pointed attack on the incumbent, Mayor Jim Watson.

He accused Watson of “bullying ” residents to accept a 350-bed Salvation Army homeless shelter on Montreal Road and of orchestrating the neighbourhood’s ruination.

“What the mayor is doing now is picking one community to flush,” charged McConville, one of 11 candidates who will challenge Watson. “Solving homelessness has nothing to do with emergency shelters. They actually increase homelessness. This archaic model is putting a huge burden on the financial future of everyone that lives in and around Vanier.

“This will become an inner-city urban ghetto,” he said. “If they make this big mistake, it’s too big to go back. This charts Ottawa’s future dealings with homelessness for the next 25 years, and says, ‘We’re just going to warehouse them, segregate them, stick them in Vanier … and to heck with that community.’ ”

McConville, a garage owner and two-time municipal candidate, entered the mayoral race to ensure the issue would be front-and-centre in the 2018 campaign.

“We have a dire affordablehousing shortage in this city and it’s time our politicians make it a priority. I intend to do just that,” he vowed.

The city needs to embrace a “housing-first” policy, McConville argued.

The philosophy holds that people in crisis should be given a permanent home right away, rather than moved in stages through shelters, addiction treatment and group homes.

McConville said the Salvation’s Army ’s proposed facility in Vanier unfairly placed the burden of dealing with the city’s homelessness problem — and the related issues of addiction and mental illness — on one community. “This affects every part of our city and we all have to be in it together,” he said. “It’s time to fix it.”

In November, city council approved plans for the Salvation Army’s Vanier shelter, which would replace the existing Booth Centre in the ByWard Market. The proposal is now before the Ontario Municipal Board.

Watson supported the organization’s move to Vanier as a means of easing the pressure on the ByWard Market, which is home to three emergency shelters.

Drew Dobson, founder of SOS Vanier, said he hoped McConville’s candidacy would trigger a constructive debate on homelessness in Ottawa.

Dobson took part in Saturday’s event protesting the city’s order that SOS Vanier remove its sign from the shoulder of the Vanier Parkway.

The sign is part of a campaign to raise $200,000 for SOS Vanier’s legal defence fund. Dobson called the city’s order “petty politics.”

“It’s ironic that the Salvation Army wants to build a shelter, and the city will change our official plan, zoning bylaws and parking restrictions. But some little community group puts up a sign and it’s got to be down in 48 hours,” he said.

SOS Vanier moved the sign to private property.