’Crazy idea:’ Ontario councillors push back as strong mayor powers reach small towns

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TORONTO — A month after Ontario’s government extended strong mayor powers to a swath of new municipalities, some leaders are promising never to use the measures — but a chorus of small-town councillors warn that local democracy is under threat.

As of May 1, another 169 mayors in the province can now veto bylaws, pass new ones with just one-third of council in favour and hire or fire municipal department heads unilaterally.

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack said last month that the province decided to more than triple the number of mayors who can access the powers in an effort to build housing faster and streamline local governance.

The measures were first introduced in 2022 and initially only applied to the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario’s two most populous cities.

Several municipalities are taking active steps to reject the powers now that they have been granted more widely.

Mark Hunter, one of 10 city councillors in Stratford, recently got unanimous support for his motion to reject the new powers. Hunter said it was symbolic and designed to show that municipal democracy shouldn’t be “subject to provincial whim.”

“What it effectively does is get rid of majority rule in our council,” he said.

“It’s the expectation of the residents in our community that their representatives are able to fully represent them and this change puts some level of diminishment on that.”

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Hunter said his fellow councillors can have strong disagreements at council, but lively discussions result in better decisions for the community. Anything that diminishes that discussion is worse for residents, he said.

Councillors aren’t concerned about Stratford’s current mayor abusing his power, said Hunter, but they are worried about what could happen in the future.

“It’s another example of concentrating power in fewer hands. Unfortunately in human history, that doesn’t always work out so well,” he said.

David O’Neil, a councillor in Quinte West, said he is also concerned about strong mayor powers, adding they represent “a real misdirection” by the province.

“I think this decision is on par with the crazy idea of building a tunnel under the 401,” O’Neil said, referring to Premier Doug Ford’s promise to add a tunnel under the major Ontario highway.

He added he is skeptical that strong mayor powers would lead to new housing being built in his community, and thinks the province should waive development fees if it wants to see more housing built.

Zack Card, another councillor for Quinte West, said he believes the expansion of the strong mayor powers will “erode the democratic traditions of municipal councils in Ontario.”

“I believe effective councils work collaboratively and with an understanding that all voices carry equal weight. Tipping that balance could potentially hinder governance and make solving issues within our communities more difficult,” Card wrote in an email.

Neither O’Neil nor Card would speak to the recent dismissal of the municipality’s chief administration officer, which was described on the municipality’s website as a “mayoral decision” pursuant to the legislation, made on the first day the powers were available.

Quinte West Mayor Jim Harrison said in an email to The Canadian Press that “the decision was made in close collaboration and consensus with council, utilizing strong mayor powers to move forward.”

Less than a week after the decision, he told a council meeting that he wasn’t planning to make use of the strong mayor powers.

O’Neil suggested his concern is more future-oriented: it’s unclear what could a different sort of mayor do with these powers five, 10 or 20 years down the road.

David Arbuckle, executive director of the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario, said unilateral power threatens a local government’s administrative authority and staffers’ ability to give non-partisan, evidence-based advice.

“It’s changed the dynamic where (a city staffer) now has to be mindful of the fact that they could be hired or fired by the mayor at any point in time,” Arbuckle said in a recent interview.

“The advice they’re bringing forward may not be as neutral as possible because ultimately they are now responding to one individual.”

Corey Engelsdorfer, a councillor from Prince Edward County, said he’s worried the powers will exacerbate existing divisions on his council and, should they be used, could “sideline” constituents even as the community experiences a boom in development.

The traditional model of majority rule is already divisive, Engelsdorfer said — especially when it comes to housing decisions — so decisions being made with even less support could lead to even more public cynicism.

“The way we build homes is by working together as a council and not by one person or a third of council pushing through what they want to push through,” he said.

“I always hear Premier Ford say that these changes cut red tape, but democracy to me is not red tape. I don’t think it’s something that needs to be in place at all.”

Mayor Steve Ferguson said in an interview that he was working to defer several of the strong mayor powers, including personnel decisions, back to council.

The council also unanimously passed a resolution asking the province to rescind strong mayor legislation, Engelsdorfer said.

Despite the concerns, Matti Siemiatycki, director of the University of Toronto’s Infrastructure Institute and a professor of geography and planning, said the uptake of the powers has been “fairly underwhelming.”

Before last month, there were only 46 so-called strong mayors in Ontario. Only a few made use of their powers.

High-profile examples include Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath advancing affordable housing development on two municipal parking lots in April 2024, and Mississauga’s former mayor Bonnie Crombie passing bylaws to build fourplexes in October 2023.

But Siemiatycki said he fears there’s greater risk for strong mayor powers to go unchecked in smaller municipalities, where there is less oversight and, often, less journalistic scrutiny.

“We’ve seen an erosion and a decline of the local presses across Canada, and it’s no more visible than in small communities,” he said.

Siemiatycki said while he sympathizes with the province’s desire to tackle a housing and infrastructure crisis, he agrees with the councillors who have raised concerns.