THUNDER BAY – City staff is looking for feedback from the Quality of Life Standing Committee on Tuesday about guiding criteria for identifying designated encampment sites.
“We’re bringing a report with some guiding criteria that will be applied, subject to committee feedback, to help identify potential sites for designated encampments, that will be brought to council for their consideration,” Rilee Willianen, supervisor of encampment response, told Newswatch in an interview on Friday.
As part of the city’s 10-Part Enhanced Encampment Response Plan, one of the initiatives is to find up to three designated encampment locations within the urban cores (one in the North Core and one in the South Core).
The staff report states the city will look at a potential third location outside the urban cores, but not in a rural area, due to service delivery, accessibility, and operational constraints.
“The exact sites are to be determined, but one of the criteria is having a reasonable walking distance within 1.5 kilometres or so of social services or public transportation. It should also be noted, though, that just because the criteria are there, it doesn’t mean that it might fit every single criteria, they are guiding criteria,” Willianen said.
The committee report states no specific sites are identified at this time, but establishing these guidelines will help identify potential locations and undertake site-specific community and stakeholder engagement.
The report lists eight specific proposed guiding criteria for assessing encampment site location.
The guiding criteria include a size requirement, access for emergency services and service providers, and land use compatibility to make sure “that the spaces aren’t interfering with actively programmed parks, for example,” Willianen said.
The city is proposing a minimum site size of “one used acre” of land for “spacing, safety requirements, and access for services and emergency response.”
They are also looking at existing encampment sites to avoid introducing encampments into new areas.
Willianen said the proposed guiding criteria build on council-approved distance guidelines, which were set in 2024.
“What we’ve seen through the implementation of the distance guidelines is that just because the site might meet those parameters, it doesn’t always mean that it’s an appropriate site. So, the guiding criteria build on top of the guidelines to add those parameters that further refine what is an appropriate site,” she said.
The city’s distance guidelines say an encampment cannot be located within 100 metres of a school, licensed children’s daycare, playground, pool, or splash pad.
They also can not be located within 50 metres of any lake, beach, pond, boat launch, actively programmed park, skateboard parks, fitness amenities, hockey rinks/arenas, golf courses, ball diamonds, soccer pitches, tennis courts, or any other sports or multi-use courts, as well as stadiums, dugouts, stages, and bleachers.
Distance guidelines also do not allow encampments within five metres from trails, sidewalks and parking lots.
The report also highlights an emerging trend of camping trailers and vehicle-based living within the community.
The three designated encampment sites are intended to address tent-based encampments. Administration may need to explore a location for a designated vehicle-based site in the future.
“My team has noticed an increase in vehicle-based sheltering, whether that’s in an actual car, maybe an RV trailer. It’s not something that we’ve seen historically, so we’re noticing that it could become something to manage better in the future. Right now, we’re just keeping an eye on it. If there is a need to have another option to manage those types of sheltering, then we’ll bring that forward for council,” Willianen said.
After administration gets the feedback from the standing committee on Tuesday, city staff will begin consultation with community stakeholders. A report back is expected on March 10 to the standing committee, which will include three recommended designated encampment sites and the consultation results.
By Clint Fleury, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Feb 06, 2026 at 14:50
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