Ontario Premier Doug Ford says there will be new rules to help address homeless encampments.

A group of nine mayors recently wrote to the premier suggesting he use the Not Withstanding Clause of the Constitution to allow police to remove the tent cities across the province. The courts have banned the forced removal of the encampments.

Lambton County and City of Sarnia officials have been dealing with a homelessness encampment in Rainbow Park for months now. Sarnia Police have said they are not able to remove people from the park because of the court ruling.

Ford wrote to the mayors saying the province is “acting to put an end to the public disorder, drug use and trafficking and loss of public space that have resulted from the widespread growth in encampments.”

The Premier said the province is planning new measures “including new enhanced legislative powers.”

The province plans to prohibit the use of illicit drugs in public and will give tools to help police enforce it.

Ford added the province plans to enhance penalties “for people who deliberately and continually break the law.”

The premier says there will be more funding for increasing the capacity at local shelters. Lambton’s youth shelter is only 48 per cent occupied and its adult shelters are between 88 and 90 per cent full according to County officials said in a report to council in November. People who chose to live rough, social services officials said, say they can stay with their partner in a shelter or they can’t use drugs there.

The premier’s letter also said the province would be making sure the funds provided by the province are used to dismantle encampments.

And Ford promised “new approaches to treatment and rehab that prioritize pathways to recovery over incarceration.” The premier had said people with addictions should be forced into treatment.

It’s not clear when the province will roll out its plan.