The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH), a charity that advocates for policies to address the housing and homelessness crisis in Canada, registered a lobbyist in Ontario to request changes to the province’s Bill 242, the Safer Municipalities Act.

The bill was tabled in December and would give police greater power to clear encampments of unhoused people. The text of the bill prohibits the use of illegal substances in a “public place,” which the bill defines as “any structure, such as a tent, used as a dwelling in a public place, if its use as a dwelling in the public place is not permitted by law.” It gives police officers the power to order a person to stop using illegal drugs, and if someone doesn’t comply, officers would be allowed to arrest a person without a warrant, fine them up to $10,000 and/or imprison them for up to six months.