BCC advocates for province to take back responsibility for health care and housing

Belleville, ON – February 17, 2026
The Belleville Chamber of Commerce has been an active partner through the provincial chamber network in building advocacy through the Ontario Chamber of Commerce to support municipalities and agencies struggling to manage the impact of community safety and the mental health & addictions crisis seen across Ontario (and the country).  This work has extended to a formal research study conducted by the Healthy Communities, Applied Research team at Loyalist College.  The report “The Hidden Cost of Community Safety” was released to Belleville City Council and media on February 17, 2026 to assist with discussion and solution building surrounding the crisis.

Communities across Ontario are experiencing escalating community safety impacts linked to unmet mental health and addictions (MHA) needs, homelessness, and housing instability. This has increased reliance on police, paramedics, and emergency departments (EDs), while chronically underfunded community agencies, city councils and local taxpayers absorb expanding responsibilities and costs.

Managing the crisis is becoming a structural feature of society that requires budget and resources at the municipal level, diverting taxpayer dollars to support front-line service needs rather than investing in infrastructure and development that support the sustainable growth of their communities.  Following Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis’s declaration of the state of emergency, Belleville Chamber of Commerce’s CEO, Jill Raycroft raised concerns to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, requesting their support to lead or follow advocacy efforts supporting those organizations and municipalities managing the complex crisis of community safety, mental health and addictions, access to housing and homelessness.

The initial reaction was tentative because “social issues are not business issues”.  In an effort to assess the impact of social issues on businesses, a preliminary study developed by the Belleville Chamber in early 2025 was directed through chambers (and their members) across 16 communities. The data identified cumulative operating and capital investments of more than $4 million (2019-2024) and 70% of businesses responding were located outside of a downtown core.  This exposed some of the hidden costs and how widespread the impact is felt across the province.

This led to a formal research study, conducted by Loyalist College’s Healthy Communities team in Applied Research.  In essence, the goal of the study was to identify similarities and trending initiatives across many mid-size cities to assist with developing recommendations to the provincial government for funding expanded services the crisis requires, especially in communities who don’t have access to additional health care resources larger centres have (including access to primary health care). 

The report documents post-pandemic increases in visible homelessness, substance use, public disorder, and crisis behaviours outpacing local capacity and affecting business operations and confidence in shared spaces; it also cautions against single-track responses and underscores the need for evidence-based collaboration and comparable data to guide interventions and reduce unintended harm.

Over the course of this time, the OCC has become an active advocate through their own reports and policy work and adding the voice of business that calls on the province to recognize the severity of this crisis is incredibly important.

In January, 2025, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce hosted a roundtable discussion “Beyond Blue Monday” with representatives from BIAs to shelters, mental health and Hart Hubs and private industry initiatives along with the Ontario Municipality Association and chambers.  Summarizing the impact of this discussion, it was noted by the OCC that, “one of the strongest themes that surfaced was the importance of not working in siloes. Many of you emphasized the need for integrated approaches for a continuum of care, shared responsibility, and ongoing collaboration across sectors.”

Chambers acknowledge they are not the experts and are not in a position to identify specific solutions within the recommendations but can add their voice to those who can.

Chambers can act as “honest brokers” to assist with collecting information and breaking down siloes as they support members who feel the impact across the spectrum; they can adjust advocacy mandates to acknowledge social issues are business issues because the current crisis has an impact on economic development and growth.

The OCC can help by standing up with municipalities, agencies, and front-line workers who have extended their roles for years and built integrated approaches, forced into “shared responsibility” of a problem created by the cumulative damage of decades of insufficient provincial system capacity. This adaptation has also masked the true scale of unmet need.

There are multiple communities and organizations trying to build solutions around the crisis without sufficient resources. And with no single lane approach to solving the crisis, it is time to reflect on the root cause and shift responsibility back to the Provincial government to fix the systems that have put us here.

It is important to continue acknowledging social issues are business issues, but when this crosses the line of also acknowledging a “shared responsibility” and step in, the government steps back from their responsibility; community collaboration fills in the gaps and the crisis shifts from an emergency into a structural feature of society. This is evidenced by how first responders have become so familiar with supporting people in crises related to mental health and addiction it has been assimilated into the daily work without question and becomes part of the sharing across professional networks. All of this based on the best of intentions to serve with compassion, but at what cost and where will it end?  The burden of Belleville City Council to adjust internal cost cutting to keep tax increases less than 5% while managing the significant increase to the police services budget, is what “shared responsibility” looks like.

If we do not push back on where the responsibility for this crisis belongs, we accept a future where municipalities will take on the costs, diverting budget and resources away from infrastructure and development, organizations and agencies working in communities will need more from within and there is already a transfer of compassion and philanthropy to support a very small segment of the population (albeit growing) because the government hasn’t owned this as their problem for decades.

Our “shared responsibility” should be reframed as a collective voice to urge the Government of Ontario to fulfill its provincial responsibility to provide adequate health care and housing systems to serve all the people who live here.

Essentially, it is time for the province to take this problem back.

As the next step, the Belleville Chamber has submitted a policy resolution document that will be open for debate in late April, with two simple recommendations; that the Ontario Chamber of Commerce urges the Government of Ontario to:

1. Restore systems that will provide adequate access to primary health care and housing stability
2. Support communities managing the crisis by reducing administrative barriers to funding
The resolution is co-sponsored by Brockville & District Chamber of Commerce, Port Hope and District Chamber of Commerce, Peterborough & Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce, Orillia District Chamber of Commerce, Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, Chatham-Kent Chamber of Commerce, Whitby Chamber of Commerce, Barrie Chamber of Commerce, Leamington District Chamber of Commerce, St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce, Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce.
If the resolution passes, the Ontario Chamber will be on side to support those associations and organizations who are also asking the province to make the necessary investments to prevent the problem from growing and funding the management of the crisis right now.

The Belleville Chamber of Commerce incorporates a membership of nearly 500 organizations across the region who represent all sectors of business & organizations that contribute to community and economic development through their decision to conduct their business here. Chambers of commerce exist to represent their members through advocacy at all levels of government around regulations, legislation and funding to support sustainable growth within the city, province and country.

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For additional information, please contact
Jill Raycroft, MBA
CEO |Belleville Chamber of Commerce
Email: jill@bellevillechamber.ca
C - 613-847-4090