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CBC — Edmonton declares homelessness emergency, judge scraps encampment lawsuit

Original source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-council-alberta-cabinet-homeless-housing-1.7085148 Retrieved: 2026-07-04 By: Natasha Riebe, Wallis Snowdon, CBC News. Posted Jan 16, 2024.

Emergency declaration

  • Council declared a housing and homelessness emergency after a two-day meeting (started Monday, wrapped Tuesday afternoon, Jan 15–16, 2024).
  • Motion put forward by Mayor Amarjeet Sohi. Council supported most of it, but four councillors — Tim Cartmell, Sarah Hamilton, Karen Principe and Aaron Paquette — voted against the part of the motion containing the actual declaration. (Janz and Knack were NOT among the four opposed.)
  • Paquette during the meeting: "We're making a promise as a municipality that we can fix this. We don't have the power, we don't have the authority, we don't have the budget."
  • Motion also: creates a mayor/city-manager task force, spends $3.5 million on "innovative solutions," directs administration to list immediate actions (e.g. offering city land for Indigenous-led transitional spaces).
  • Sohi: number of homeless in Edmonton "remains double the pre-pandemic numbers — about 3,100 people. In 2023, 301 people died as a result of homelessness, up from 200 the year before" (city administration statistics).
  • Province objected. Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver called it "a performative declaration."

Standing decision (same day, Jan 16, 2024)

  • "In a decision Tuesday, Court of King's Bench Justice Jonathan Martin determined that the Coalition for Justice and Human Rights does not have legal standing to represent the interests of people in the city experiencing homelessness."
  • Coalition filed the lawsuit in August [2023] over the encampment eviction policy, calling it a Charter/human-rights violation. It sought an injunction restricting camp removals in certain situations (e.g. extreme cold).
  • City had asked the court to strike the action, arguing the coalition "lacks either private or public interest standing."
  • Martin: the coalition "lacked expertise and experience in advocating for and working with unhoused persons, and that allowing the case to proceed with the group at the helm could set a concerning precedent."
  • Martin (quoted): "This court recognizes the difficulties faced by unhoused persons, the need to ensure that their voices are heard and amplified... But the circumstances of this matter and the evidence before this court are insufficient to find that the coalition ought to be granted public interest standing."
  • Edmonton Police Service gained intervenor status. EPS lawyer Jeffrey Westman said Chief Dale McFee "remains confident in the EPS approach to encampments."
  • City statement: "we don't believe litigation is the best way to find solutions to homelessness."
  • Lawyer Avnish Nanda (coalition): "disappointed but not surprised."
  • Context: "the city made plans to tear down eight inner-city encampments it had deemed a danger to public safety. The planned sweeps by Edmonton police prompted a series of interim injunctions, which set conditions for the removals. Last week... tents at the eighth and final encampment were torn down as extreme cold blanketed the city."