Strong Mayor Powers Bad Democracy

Like many municipalities in Ontario, Meaford’s council is grappling with the recent imposition of ‘strong mayor powers’. During Monday’s council meeting there was significant discussion about the strong mayor powers, and while it was clear that not one of the seven members of our council support the use of strong mayor powers, it was also clear that rejecting them will take some work.

Strong mayor powers were first granted to Toronto and Ottawa in 2022, and the provincial government has continued to grant more municipalities the powers, with 47 of the 444 Ontario municipalities previously granted strong mayor powers, prior to the provincial government’s May 1 expansion of the powers to 169 additional municipalities.

Under the legislation, strong mayor powers and duties include choosing to appoint the municipality’s chief administrative officer, hiring municipal department heads, proposing the municipal budget, and creating committees of council, all without the need for the support of the remainder of council.

The special powers also grant mayors the ability to propose bylaws that advance certain provincial priorities, and to pass them with only one-third support of council. With strong mayor powers, a mayor can also veto bylaws that ‘could potentially interfere with a provincial priority’. That veto power can be overridden however by a two-thirds vote by council.

As I wrote in our April 17 print newspaper (The 3

Rs…Rants, Raves & Rumours), I am not a fan of giving the mayor of any municipality disproportionate powers when compared to the rest of council. I quite like our system in which all members of council have one vote, with the mayor having some additional responsibilities but no additional power when compared to the rest of council.

It seems simple to me that if you hand the mayor all of the important decision-making powers, why elect any regular councillors at all?

Strong mayor powers are anything but democratic, as was pointed out on Monday by Councillor Steve Bartley, who suggested that, “This could really be a quagmire, this could really be the worst thing that has happened to the democratic process.”

As Councillor Bartley has noted in council, he is a conservative himself, yet even he is vehemently opposed to the imposition of strong mayor powers by the Ford government.

I fully agree with Councillor Bartley’s assessment, and while I am pleased that our current council has zero interest in seeing strong mayor powers exercised in this municipality, that could change after next year’s municipal election. This means that Meaford voters will need to be extra cautious before casting their votes next October, because w hile the current mayor might be opposed to the use of strong mayor powers, a future mayor might opt to embrace them.

As Steve Hammell, the mayor of Arran-Elderslie, said in a statement earlier in mid-April, “Strong Mayor Powers undermine the collaborative nature of municipal councils and the essential role of all elected officials in local decision-making.” I could not agree more.

Earlier this month, our neighbour Owen Sound issued a statement about the strong mayor powers, and indicated that their current mayor plans to delegate those powers back to council and their city manager wherever possible, and they called upon the province to reverse their decision to impose strong mayor powers on 169 municipalities.

“The reality is that these powers are being implemented whether municipalities want them or not. Council recognized this and used the time wisely, not to delay action, but to ensure the city is equipped to navigate the changes responsibly. In doing so, Owen Sound has positioned itself ahead of many municipalities that have yet to engage meaningfully with the operational, legal, and procedural realities these powers entail,” said Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy .

Further, Owen Sound rightly maintains that strong mayor powers are not in the best interest of effective local governance.

“ While the Province states that the expanded powers are intended to help advance priorities such as housing, transit, and infrastructure, Owen Sound values collaborative, council-led decision-making…