A look at a year of strong mayoral powers in Ontario

TORONTO — Since the so-called strong mayoral powers were granted to city council heads in many Ontario municipalities a year ago, most mayors have used them sparingly, if at all. But in some quarters, there is still a sense of unease with the sweeping powers.

Since this month, nearly 30 mayors have had the ability for a year or more to propose ordinances and pass them with the support of a third of council members, veto ordinances, and appoint heads of fire departments and fire brigades, among other powers.

Premier Doug Ford’s government later delegated the powers to many more mayors, even when they themselves had no interest in doing so. Ontario now has 46 mayors in total.

Many of them are in the province’s largest cities, and the chair of the Ontario Big City Mayors Group said mayors have generally shown “tremendous restraint and responsibility” in exercising their powers.

“Where they have used some of those discretionary tools, it was after careful consideration and consideration of the long-term best interest of the community,” said Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward.

Some of the more notable applications include Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath’s authority to promote the development of affordable housing on two municipal parking lots, and then-Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie’s use of the authority to benefit fourplexes.

In Caledon, Mayor Annette Groves recently withdrew her use of strong mayoral powers to push through 12 rezoning applications for 35,000 homes after the move drew opposition from her community. She said she would instead let the issue go through the regular council process, but defended the use.

“I do not abuse the mayor’s strong powers,” she said in an interview. “I believe I have only used them where necessary to continue … the province’s priorities to build housing.”

The provincial government has presented the powers as a set of tools to achieve the goal of building 1.5 million homes in Ontario by 2031. Time is ticking, Groves said, and municipalities like Caledon must meet current and future housing needs.

“If we don’t start planning and we don’t get ahead of this growth, growth will pass us by,” she said.

The mayor’s strong powers are broad, and only a few directly address housing, in law. The powers to propose and pass an ordinance with one-third of the council’s support and to veto an ordinance must relate to the construction of housing or related infrastructure.

The law also gives mayors the power to instruct their staff to conduct research and write reports, and to appoint the highest administrative officer, department heads, chairmen and vice-chairmen of local governments. They can also establish and dissolve committees. However, they can also delegate these powers to the council.

Most of the items on municipal websites listing the use of the powers involve a mayor “approving” an ordinance – in other words, indicating that he will not veto it.

Mayors are required by law to prepare and present a budget, though some say they still work in conjunction with their councils in practice. Other mayors have used the mayor’s strong budgetary powers to cap property tax increases, establish a property tax deferral for seniors, reopen the document to add millions in new spending to revitalize a downtown area and add funding to put “Aurora” in all caps outside that community’s city hall, similar to what can be seen in Toronto.

Aurora Councilwoman Rachel Gilliland said there is too much uncertainty about what the mayor’s strong powers can be used for.

“Strong mayoral powers to me is really an attack on democracy,” she said. “It certainly hasn’t done what it’s supposed to do, in my opinion, at least not in Aurora.”

Aurora council has received legal advice that the decisions are not reviewable or appealable. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has indicated that it is up to the municipalities to determine whether the use of the powers is in accordance with the law.

“(That) really opens Pandora’s box,” Gilliland said. “It doesn’t matter what the mayor vetoes or what the mayor decides. The mayor has the sole authority and control to do whatever he wants.”

Ajax Mayor Shaun Collier, who has used the powers on housing developments involving more than 4,000 homes, suggested that the accountability for the mayor’s strong powers is the election cycle.

“People ask me, ‘Have you consulted on certain things?'” he said. “Well, our consultation is every four years. It’s called an election. And if you don’t like what we’re doing, that’s your chance to change.”

Collier said the powers have been “incredibly helpful” in speeding up the construction of housing in Ajax. In one case, he used them to approve up to 62 stories for two residential towers near a GO Transit station, even though the city’s official plan calls for a maximum of 25 stories. In another case, a multi-residential development made design changes that resulted in the loss of several parking spaces, and Collier used the powers to ensure that the project did not have to go through a commission of adjustment again.

St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe, who has used the powers a few times, including by directing his staff to prioritize development applications, said the powers have generally been received positively, though he understands some people may be hesitant.

“When the powers came into power, there was a lot of confusion about what exactly they could be,” he said.

“We had people from the development industry come forward and say, ‘Well, you know, I’m running into this problem. I need your strong mayoral powers to get me past this point.’ It was like, ‘No, sir, your problem is related to building codes and you actually have to comply with building codes. I can’t let that happen.’”

Leanne Caron, a Guelph councillor, is among those uncomfortable with the process. Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie has used the powers a number of times, including to direct staff to research setting up a structured encampment site — which would include tiny homes — and Caron said she agrees with what he used them for, but not with the actual use of the powers.

“Nothing the mayor has done using the strong powers of the mayor, in my view, is something that would not have been done with the full support of the council,” she said.

“We were all elected to have a voice in the direction our community is going. That’s exactly what the Municipal Act was designed to do: to put power in the collective, not the power of one person.”

Guthrie said his directive in the case of the encampment report bypasses the step of council debating whether to produce the report, but that the council and community will ultimately debate the issue after the report is submitted.

“If we were going to buy tiny homes, there was, in my opinion, a big issue of timing,” he said. “We had to order them and/or build them long before winter came.”

Guthrie also noted that he delegated authority regarding personnel. He said it is important to have a separation between the administrative and political sides of City Hall.

The Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario, which represents municipal professionals, reported that just over half of strong mayors have retained the authority to appoint the chief administrative officer and about 35 per cent of them have retained the authority to appoint department heads.

“From the beginning, we were very concerned about the potential for de facto politicizing municipal public service delivery, and we continue to be concerned about that,” said Executive Director Dave Arbuckle.

“Suppose a collective labor agreement is accepted directly by a mayor. That staff wonders where that person’s loyalty might lie. Is it with the municipality as a whole? With the council? With just the mayor?”

Mayor Lynn Dollin of Innisfil is one of the mayors who was not interested in obtaining the powers and did not use them beyond what the law required, such as taking responsibility for the budget. She delegated everything she could.

“I’ve always been one of those people who thinks, if you want to go fast, you have to go alone, and if you want to go far, you have to go together,” she said.

“I just believe that you can only go so far by using those powers, because you’re going to hit obstacles. So I’m confident that if it’s a good idea, I can convince five out of nine of my board that it’s a good idea.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2024.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press