Councillor Haley Bateman Stands Against the Notwithstanding Clause

<p>We rarely expect to return to the topic so soon when we air our episodes. However, that was the case with our last episode with St. Catharine's Mayor Mat Siscoe. We spoke with him about his reasons for signing a letter with 12 other Ontario Mayors requesting Premier Doug Ford give municipalities the power under the Notwithstanding Clause to remove homeless encampments from public parks and spaces. This proved to be a controversial debate. We were happy to have Mayor Siscoe on to provide his reasoning and give this topic the discussion it deserved.</p><br><p>Following the release of that episode though, a rebuttal letter was released signed by 40 councillors from municipalities across Ontario. The letter laid out the clear opposition to the Mayor's request for the notwithstanding clause to be used and made a direct appeal to the Premier to refuse their request. One of the signatories to that letter was Councillor Haley Bateman. Councillor Bateman represents St. Catharines in the Niagara Region. As Councillor Bateman and Mayor Siscoe represent the same constituents they would also be familiar with the details of St. Catharines' homeless population. We thought this would be a good apples-to-apples examination of the issue.</p><br><p>As such we welcome to the podcast Councillor Haley Bateman of St. Catharines to discuss why she thinks the notwithstanding clause is a step too far in dealing with the homeless encampments in our cities.</p><br><p><a href="https://905er.ca/2024/11/mayor-mat-siscoe-backs-his-decision-to-request-the-notwithstanding-clause/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Last week's episode with Mayor Mat Siscoe is here</a>.</p><br><p><strong>It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.</strong></p><br><p><a href="https://905er.ca/membership-account/membership-levels/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca</a>. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!</p><br><p>Or, why not <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/the905er" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">buy us a coffee</a>?</p><br><p>Nicholas Paul: sound editing.</p><p>The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!</p> <a target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href="https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/4723909">Get bonus content on Patreon</a><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

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