[Townhall] Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said on Saturday that he wants to sell the trucks confiscated from the protesters who took part in the "Freedom Convoy" against vaccine mandates.
Watson made the remarks in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He claimed that Canada’s "Emergencies Act," which gives the government more power to respond to an "urgent and critical situation" that "seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it," gives the city of Ottawa the authority to sell the trucks.
In the interview, Watson also said that the Freedom Convoy hurt small businesses in the nation’s capital and "disrupted the city."
"That’s one of the reasons why, under the Emergencies Act, that I’ve asked our solicitor and our city manager, how can we keep the tow trucks, and the campers, and the vans and everything else we’ve confiscated, and sell those pieces of equipment to help recoup some of the costs that our taxpayers are absorbing? That’s one of the provisions of the Emergency Act and we have been a beneficiary of the Emergency Act," Watson stated in the interview.
"I asked the Members of Parliament to consider, it’s [the Emergency Act] helped us a lot, things like confiscating vehicles," he added. Watson continued, saying that politicians need a better plan going forward to "protect our residents" better than they have this past month. |