Mayor elect Andy Fillmore is clarifying his stance on tent encampments in Halifax.

During a mayoral candidates debate in September, Fillmore said he would prevent encampments from expanding. He also said he would take down any tents within 24 hours of when they are set up.

However, at his campaign party Saturday night, he said that wasn’t entirely accurate.

“What I had said was that we’ll phase out the encampments at the rate at which people are able to be moved into more supportive and permanent housing solutions. So that’s a very important distinction,” he said.

Fillmore said the end goal is to phase out encampments entirely, because the longer people live there, “the more their mental and physical health deteriorates at an increasingly rapid rate.”

However, at the debate, Fillmore also claimed that the Halifax Regional Police told him the city was attracting homeless people.

But Constable Martin Cromwell said that information did not come from the police chief’s office, and they did not have data to support that.

At his campaign party, Fillmore said the province has done tremendous work on Pallet shelters and tiny homes, and that’s where more resources should go, he said.

‘That’s going to be good for everybody.”