Ontario’s Big City Mayors Update on their SolvetheCrisis.ca Campaign and Request that the Government of Ontario Declare a State of Emergency
December 5, 2025
TORONTO, ON – Last year, Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) launched our Solve the Crisis campaign to shed light on the humanitarian crisis happening on our. Along with thousands of residents and municipalities across the province, we asked the Ontario government to take action to address the growing number of people experiencing homelessness, mental health issues and addictions.
The province did respond with the launch of the HART Hub program which addressed some of our requests including focusing some of the work they are doing under one ministry and providing community hubs that relieved pressure from emergency rooms and first responders and helped fill in the gaps in the system.
Although the province has been funding programs like HART Hubs and the Homelessness Prevention Program over the last few years, it’s not nearly enough to address this growing crisis. Along with our municipal colleagues OBCM believes it comes down to a lack of funding overall and inadequate resources for homelessness, mental health and addictions in Ontario. In their report earlier this year the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) estimated that it would take $11 Billion over 10 years to end chronic homelessness by focusing on prevention, supportive housing & sustainable exits from homelessness.
Municipalities continue to do their part including covering 51.5% of the $4.1 billion spent on housing and homelessness programs in Ontario in 2024, supporting various services, including homelessness prevention, emergency shelters, transitional housing, supportive housing, and affordable housing. We cannot sustain this rate of funding for many services that should fall under provincial responsibility.
That’s why today we are renewing the call from our SolvetheCrisis.ca campaign asking that the province step up and provide the necessary funding and programs needed to truly make an impact. We are looking to them to make greater investments in the mental health and addictions sector, open additional HART Hubs in more communities to address growing needs as well as develop a winter response plan and long term strategy to solve the crisis. OBCM stands ready to partner and help build this plan in partnership with the province.
In today’s OBCM meeting, the mayors passed a motion (see appendix below) urgently requesting that the Government of Ontario declare a state of emergency to address homelessness caused by addictions and mental health that has created a community safety and humanitarian crisis across the province.
We are also asking the public to once again visit our website SolvetheCrisis.ca to share your stories and write to the Premier, Ministers and your local MPPs and tell them that you want action now.
“Its been over a year since we launched our SolvetheCrisis.ca campaign and we have made progress and we thank the province for the steps they have taken to address this crisis. However, the needs across our communities continue to grow. We continue to call on the province to take action and work with municipalities so together we can provide the programs, services and spaces our most vulnerable residents need.”
- Marianne Meed Ward, OBCM Chair and Mayor of Burlington
“As service managers providing shelter, housing, and supports to people experiencing homelessness, Regions and cities are on the front lines of this crisis. We see firsthand that current resources cannot meet the scale of need – and as temperatures drop, that means real human suffering and growing strain on communities. We echo OBCM’s urgency: solving the crisis requires immediate provincial action and collaboration across all orders of government.”
– Chair Karen Redman, Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario (MARCO)
“We’re grateful to the Ontario Big City Mayors for continuing to bring attention to this humanitarian crisis. Our 27 branches work with municipalities to support individuals facing mental health, addictions and housing-related issues. Our hope is for increased funding from the federal and provincial governments so that service providers in our sector have the tools and resources to support Ontarians in need.”
– Camille Quenneville, CEO, Canadian Mental Health Association Ontario
“On behalf of the Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus, I want to express our strong support for Ontario’s Big City Mayors and the Solve the Crisis campaign. The homelessness, mental health, and addictions crisis is not confined to big cities — it is impacting rural communities, small towns, and counties across Western Ontario. Municipalities are doing everything they can, but the current funding model is simply not sustainable. We need the province and federal government to partner with us to expand the kinds of integrated supports envisioned through the HART Hubs — not only in large centres, but in communities of all sizes. As temperatures drop, the need for immediate action has never been greater. We stand with OBCM in calling for a coordinated, well-funded provincial response, and we are ready to work together to help solve this crisis.”
— Warden Amy Martin, Chair, Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus
“In rural and small urban communities across Ontario, people are becoming unhoused, struggling, and too often facing devastating outcomes. These communities are committed to helping, but they simply do not have the financial tools or resources to meet this crisis alone. It is time for all levels of government, together with our community partners, to take meaningful action and work collectively to Solve the Crisis for rural and small urban Ontario.”
– Chair Bonnie Clark, Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus
About Ontario’s Big City Mayors
Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) is a non-partisan organization that includes mayors of 29 single and lower-tier cities with a population of 100,000 or more, who collectively represent nearly 70 percent of Ontario’s population and almost 30 percent of Canada’s population. OBCM advocates for issues and policies important to Ontario’s largest cities.
Media Contacts
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, Chair Michelle Baker, Executive Director
chair@obcm.ca michelle@obcm.ca
905-335-7777 647-308-6602
Appendix
Motion Requesting the Government of Ontario Declare a State of Emergency
December 5, 2025
Moved by Mayor Kevin Davis
Seconded by Mayor Josh Morgan
Whereas approximately one year ago, Ontario’s Big City Mayors unanimously endorsed the Solve the Crisis Campaign and its associated asks of the province to provide additional supports to address the growing impacts of homelessness, addictions and mental health crises and to support municipal interventions; and
Whereas the province has instituted various interventions, including the launch of 28 HART Hubs, increasing funding to the homelessness prevention program, and other investments in the mental health and addictions sector; and
Whereas these interventions are welcome, yet they remain insufficient to address this growing community safety and humanitarian crisis. Further interventions are needed.
Therefore it be resolved that Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) urgently request the Government of Ontario to declare a state of emergency to address homelessness caused by addictions and mental health that has created a community safety and humanitarian crisis across the province.
And that the province provides municipalities at both levels with the necessary assistance and funds to address combined challenges of the ongoing addictions, mental health and homelessness crisis occurring across our province;
And that the province engages with OBCM and relative partners to fulfil the Solve The Crisis campaign action steps presented unanimously by the caucus in August 2024.