The Week in Polling: Canadians more likely to call U.S. an enemy than China; Majority want homeless encampments removed; Half think there are too many public servants

Nearly 60 percent of Canadians want municipalities to clear homeless encampments by declaring a state of emergency Nearly six in 10 Canadians support giving municipalities the power to declare states of emergency to dismantle homeless encampments, according to a new Nanos poll. About a third (32 percent) said they support the measure outright, while another quarter (25 percent) somewhat support it, for a total of 57 percent support. Roughly four in 10 are opposed or somewhat opposed, and 6 percent are unsure. Support was highest in British Columbia, where 68 percent agreed with using emergency powers to clear encampments, while only 28 percent opposed it. In Quebec, the least supportive province, fewer than half supported the idea, and more than 40 percent opposed it. According to Statistics Canada, more than one in 10, 11.2 percent, of Canadians, totalling around 1.7 million, reported that they had experienced some form of homelessness in their lives. In 2023, the most recent year with available data, there were 20,864 beds across 561 permanent emergency shelters in Canada. However, 118,329 Canadians experienced homelessness in emergency shelters that year. Over 32,000 Canadians were considered chronically homeless. It is common for homeless people to find shelter in tents in municipally-run parks and public spaces. Barrie, Ontario, became the latest Canadian city to declare a state of emergency over homeless encampments last month. Mayor Alex Nuttall framed the move as a balance between compassion and enforcement. “We are here to help those who want help, and there are resources available today,” he said. “If you refuse that help, you cannot stay in these encampments.” The emergency declaration grants Barrie access to additional supports, both to connect encampment residents with shelter and rehabilitation programs and to clean up the affected sites. Canadians are more likely than not to say the public service is overstaffed About one in two Canadians believes there are too many people working in the federal public service, according to new polling from Nanos. Half of respondents (50 percent) said the public service is too bloated, while about a quarter (24 percent) felt the number of public servants was about right. Only 7 percent of Canadians said there were not enough federal workers, and 19 percent were unsure. Canadians living in the Prairies (57 percent) and Quebecers (55 percent) were most likely to say there are too many federal employees, while British Columbians were least likely at 42 percent. Among age groups, older Canadians aged 55 and over were much more inclined to see overstaffing (55 percent) than younger adults aged 18 to 34 (38 percent). Men (57 percent) were also significantly more likely than women (43 percent) to say the public service is too large. The federal public service employed 357,247 people in 2023. During Justin Trudeau’s nine years in power, the public service grew by more than 43 percent, despite the country’s population growing by less than 15 percent in the same time. Last month, Prime Minister Carney said that any reduction in the size of the federal public service will only “happen naturally through attrition.” During the last federal election, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said that if he were to gain power, he would cut the public service. When he then lost his Ottawa riding by 4,500 votes, he claimed it was due to this pledge. “And it’s an Ottawa riding with a lot of federal public servants who disagreed with that approach,” he said. “[The Liberals] ran a very aggressive campaign, particularly the public sector unions did, to defeat me on that basis.”