Strong Mayor Powers Are Bad For 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 3Rs…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 and does not believe the strong mayor framework is appropriate or necessary for its local governance,” the city said in their statement earlier this month.During an initial discussion of strong mayor powers in late April, Councillor Bartley called the legislation ‘a travesty’, Councillor Forder suggested that it is undemocratic, and our new CAO noted that, “it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”Not one member of Meaford’s council has expressed support for the imposition of strong mayor powers, including, perhaps most importantly, our mayor, who has also expressed strong opposition to the imposition of strong mayor powers, and he continued to do so during Monday’s council meeting.“ I had no idea that this really is not something that we can just fluff off; it is draconian in my mind,” Kentner told council on Monday.As I mentioned earlier, there is some comfort in knowing that our current mayor is opposed to the strong mayor powers concept, and has no plans to use those powers himself, but the reality is that the next mayor might see things differently. Our next mayor might want to use those powers, and if they choose to do so, they can, without worrying about any opposition from the other six members of our council.As the staff report to council noted, “The Mayor has the sole discretion in determining whether to exercise the powers under this part of the Act. As long as the decisions made by the Mayor or any powers exercised by the Mayor, including the veto power, are exercised legally and in good faith, the decision or power cannot be quashed or open to any review by a court, even if they may be considered unreasonable.” That is scary indeed for anyone who values democracy.This will be an issue that will be important to follow in the weeks and months to come, and as I mentioned earlier, it should be something that voters seriously consider in next year’s municipal election, as a new mayor could very well opt to embrace strong mayor powers, and there doesn’t seem to be anything anyone could do to prevent it. #J-18808-Ljbffr