Strong mayor powers given to several area heads of council

Ingersoll mayor Brian Petrie, left, and the mayor of South West Oxford, David Mayberry, are two of 169 mayors across Ontario added to the Strong Mayor Power list.

Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Government of Ontario is continuing to bolster the unilateral decision-making powers of mayors across the province with a proposal to expand strong mayor powers to 169 additional municipalities effective May 1, including Ingersoll and South West Oxford.

In 2022, through changes to the Municipal Act, strong mayor powers were first granted to the heads of councils in Toronto and Ottawa, and then to mayors in 48 additional municipalities in 2023. Though several municipalities declined the enhanced mayoral powers, a total of 47 mayors in Ontario now have these strong mayor powers.

“Heads of council are key partners in our efforts to build homes and infrastructure across the province,” said Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack in a press release announcing the latest proposed expansion. “By extending strong mayor powers to these additional municipalities, we are providing mayors every tool at our disposal to empower them to get homes and infrastructure built faster. Mayors know their municipalities best, and we support them in taking bold actions for their communities.”

Strong mayor powers include the ability to appoint a municipality’s chief administrative officer (CAO), hire certain municipal department heads and reorganize departments, create committees of council, propose the municipal budget, propose certain bylaws the mayor says advances a provincial priority, veto certain bylaws the mayor says could interfere with a provincial priority, and bring forward matters for discussion by council if the mayor says they could advance a provincial priority.

Ingersoll Mayor Brian Petrie is one of the 169 mayors in the expansion.

“I want to start by saying that at no time was this change requested, and I didn’t have any knowledge that the change was coming prior to the release from the province. I have been clear in my stance on Strong Mayor Powers that it’s not something  I support.”

He added the town has an elected group of people who work together to achieve goals of and everyone deserves an equal voice and vote at the table.

“It’s been a pillar of local government for over 200 years. I want to assure you that that will continue to be the case going forward in Ingersoll. I will be delegating all powers that I can back to council and the CAO. Every decision made will continue to be that of the majority of council.Petrie added he has no desire to replace CAO Michael Graves, something that has happened in several municipalities in Ontario.

“I will work with Council and staff to ensure that it’s business as usual and that everyone has an equal say and vote because that’s how I think we get the best decisions for our community,” he added.

South West Oxford Mayor David Mayberry also made the new list and explained he is against the move in both principle and practice.

“Just from the principle of how municipal government works, councillors are supposed to reflect the community. You don’t want them all the same, you want them different so they reflect different views, voices and opinions of the broader community. They come together to find common ground where the best solution can be made.”

Mayberry said he would never stifle the democratic process by eliminating the votes of some members of council.

“Fundamentally, that leads to far better decision making.”

The Echo asked the mayor if there was any scenario where he could see him self utilizing Strong Mayor Powers. The answer came fast and it was decisive but he didn’t shut the door completely.

“Absolutely not. But one can’t be 100 per cent sure of everything. You don’t know what crisis may happen, but fundamentally, I wouldn’t. That’s because the mayor’s role is to lead council but also help them come to a consensus with a community-wide response to whatever the issue is.”

Mayberry added even when he is in the minority, the majority should rule.

“I shouldn’t be able to say if someone doesn’t like what I want, I am going to overrule you. That is dangerous.”

He also went into detail about the section of the legislation stating a mayor can make major staffing decisions on his own, including firing a CAO. That, he said, is worrisome.

“The CAO could feel like they have to do what the mayor wants and does that lead to the erosion of their independence. They could think that if the mayor could fire me, maybe I would write the report the way the mayor has directed other than how it should have been.”

Mayberry is concerned those types of decisions could lead to a dictatorial situation, something ill-suited to democracy.

“That to me undermines the whole public confidence. Governments are not held in the highest light by the public. Anything we do that undermines the principles of democracy is not a good thing. We already have a problem with people being unsure or unconvinced council is operating in the best interest of the entire community.”

Zack Taylor, an associate professor of political science at Western University and a fellow at the Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance, has been among those sounding alarm bells about strong mayor powers since their introduction in Ontario in 2022.

“If we buy the argument that these powers can be used to expand housing in rapidly growing areas, it’s the larger municipalities in rapidly growing areas that already have these powers,” Taylor said. “So, bringing this to much smaller places, many of them slower-growth places, I’m not sure if it’s something that would move the needle.”

Taylor said the expansion of these powers is based on the premise that councils across Ontario are “gridlocked” when it comes to dealing with issues deemed as priorities by the province, something the associate professor doesn’t see a lot of evidence to support. He says the idea that giving “soft-dictatorial authority” to heads of council to move the needle on housing doesn’t really make a lot of sense.

“Ontario has a very elaborate planning system that has generally served the province well for decades going back to the Second World War,” he said. “As a result, we have fairly efficient housing production that’s fully serviced by water and sewer and that kind of thing. And if you look at other parts of North America, that isn’t necessarily a given. But I think there is a legitimate argument there is a housing shortage, it’s just is this the right way to address it and will this kind of thing make it happen? What we’ve seen so far is it’s really hard to find any kind of evidence that strong mayor powers have created any more housing than would have been created otherwise.

“ … I think a cynical perspective on it is this is a way for the province to transfer blame for the housing crisis onto mayors.”

Among the myriad issues he sees with strong mayor powers and this proposed expansion is the decision by the province to expand these powers to smaller municipalities with fewer staff.

“If we think this entire policy basically emerged out of Doug Ford’s special interest in Toronto, the City of Toronto’s administrative structure with 30,000-plus employees is enormous and multi-layered, so the idea of having the mayor being able to play a role in hiring and firing senior staff means that you’re only really looking at that top layer. When you go to smaller places, we know you can fit the entire staff of a municipality in one room. … So, what does it mean to give the mayor hiring and firing power over that kind of thing? I think what it really risks is arbitrary decisions getting made, people playing favourites – you hire uncle Joe or whatever,” Taylor said.

“ … The mayor can install anyone they want.”

Another red flag for Taylor, specifically among smaller councils with as little as six members, is the notion a strong mayor can introduce a bylaw that supposedly advances a provincial priority and see it passed with just one-third of council’s support. For a council with six members, one of whom is the mayor, that means it would require just one other councillor’s support to pass.

While Taylor said these powers could see some benefits when it comes to limiting council debate during budget deliberations to ensure annual budgets are passed in a timely manner, he sees this expansion of power as opening the door to mayoral candidates in future municipal elections running with the intention of using strong mayoral powers to advance their own agendas instead of what’s best for their communities. And, in many smaller and rural communities, Taylor said mayoral candidates often run unopposed.

“Next time around, they’ll run with the knowledge of having these powers,” Taylor said. “ … You could imagine in small places that don’t really have any local media – there isn’t a lot of scrutiny – that things could go off the rails pretty fast.”

With files from Galen Simmons