A look at one year of strong mayor powers in Ontario

In the year since so-called strong mayor powers were granted to the heads of council in a swath of Ontario municipalities, most mayors have used them sparingly — if at all — though in some corners a sense of unease with the sweeping authority remains.

As of this month, nearly 30 mayors have had the ability for a year or more to propose bylaws and pass them with the support of one-third of councillors, veto bylaws and hire and fire department heads, among other powers.

Premier Doug Ford's government later doled out the powers to many more mayors, even when they were not interested in receiving them, and Ontario now has a total of 46 strong mayors.

Many of them are in the province's largest cities, and the chair of the Ontario Big City Mayors group said by and large the mayors have "exercised enormous restraint and responsibility" in exercising the powers.

"Where they've used some of those discretionary tools it's been after careful thought and consideration of the best interest, long term, of the community," said Marianne Meed Ward, mayor of Burlington. 

Some of the higher-profile uses include Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath using the powers to advance an affordable housing development on two municipal parking lots, and then-Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie using them in favour of fourplexes.

In Caledon, Mayor Annette Groves recently rescinded her use of strong mayor powers to push forward 12 rezoning applications for 35,000 homes after the move caused pushback in her community. She said she will instead have the issue go through the regular council process, but defended the usage.

"I am not abusing the use of strong mayor powers," she said in an interview. "I believe that I've used it only where it's necessary to carry on ... the priorities of the province to get housing built."

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

"If we don't start planning, and we don't start getting ahead of this growth, the growth is going to get ahead of us," she said. 

The strong mayor powers are broad, and only a few of them directly relate to housing, in law. The powers to propose and pass a bylaw with one-third of council support and to veto a bylaw must relate to building housing or related infrastructure. 

The law also allows mayors to direct staff to conduct research and write reports, as well as appoint the chief administrative officer, department heads, chairs and vice-chairs of local boards, and establish and dissolve committees, though they can delegate those powers to council. 

The majority of items on municipalities' websites listing uses of the powers are the mayor "approving" a bylaw — in other words, indicating they will not veto it.

Mayors are required under the law to prepare and propose a budget, though some say they are in effect still working collaboratively with their council. Other mayors have used the strong mayor budgetary powers to impose a cap on property tax increases, institute a property tax deferral for seniors, reopen the document to add millions in new spending to revitalize a downtown, and add funding to put "Aurora" in capital letters outside that community's town hall, similar to what is seen in Toronto.

Rachel Gilliland, a councillor in Aurora, said there is too much grey area in what the strong mayor powers can be used for.

"Strong mayor powers to me, really (do) attack democracy," she said. "It certainly has not, in my opinion, done what it's supposed to be doing, at least in Aurora."

Aurora's council received a legal opinion that the decisions are not reviewable or appealable, and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has said it is up to the municipalities to determine if the uses of the powers are in accordance with the law.

"(That) just really opens up Pandora's box," Gilliland, said. "It doesn't matter what the mayor vetoes or what the mayor decides. The mayor has the sole discretion and control to do whatever they so choose."

Ajax Mayor Shaun Collier, who has used the powers for housing projects involving more than 4,000 units, suggested the accountability mechanism for the strong mayor powers is the election cycle.

"People ask me, 'Did you consult 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, then that's your opportunity to change."

Collier said the powers have been "incredibly helpful" in speeding up the creation of housing in Ajax. In one case he used them to approve up to 62 storeys for two residential towers near a GO Transit station even though the town's official plan has 25 storeys as the maximum. In another case a multi-residential development made design changes that resulted in the loss of some parking spaces and Collier used the powers to ensure the project didn't have to go back through a committee of adjustment.

St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe, who has used the powers a few times including directing staff to prioritize development applications, said the reception to the powers has been largely positive, though he understands some people's hesitation.

"When the powers came in there was a lot of confusion as to what exactly they could be," he said. 

"I had folks in the development industry coming forward and saying, 'Well, you know, I'm running into this problem. I need you to use your strong mayor powers to get me past this point.' It's like, 'No, your issue, sir, (is) building code related, and you actually have to meet the building code. I can't waive that.'"

Leanne Caron, a councillor in Guelph, is among those uneasy with the process. Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie has used the powers a number of times, including to direct staff to research establishing a structured encampments site – which would involve tiny homes – and Caron said she supports what he has used them for, just not the actual use of the powers.

"Nothing that the mayor has done using strong mayor powers, in my opinion, is anything that wouldn't have happened with the full support of council," she said.

"We were all elected to have a voice in the direction our community goes and that's what the Municipal Act was designed to do, was to put the power in the collective, and not the power of one."

Guthrie said in the case of the encampments report, his directive does bypass the step of council debating whether they want the report to be done, but at the end of the day the council and community still debate the issue after the report is submitted.

"If we wanted to look at getting tiny homes, there was, in my mind, a very big issue of timing," he said. "We needed to order them and/or build them much prior to the winter coming."

Guthrie also noted that he delegated the personnel-related powers, saying it's important to have a divide between the administrative and political sides of city hall.

The Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario, which represents municipal professionals, said that a little more than half of the strong mayors have retained the power to appoint the chief administrative officer and about 35 per cent of them retained the power to appoint department heads.

"Right from the outset, we were very concerned with the opportunity to essentially politicize the municipal public service and we remain concerned," said executive director Dave Arbuckle. 

"Say a CAO is hired directly by a mayor. That staff is wondering where potentially that individual's loyalties lie. Is it to the municipality as a whole? Is it to council? Is it to just the mayor?"

Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin is among the mayors who were not interested in getting the powers and have not used them beyond what the law requires, such as taking responsibility for the budget. She delegated everything she could.

"I've always been one of those people that think if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together," she said. 

"I just simply believe you can only go so far by using those powers because you're going to run into obstacles. So I'm convinced that if it's a good idea, I'm going to be able to convince five of nine of my council that it's a good idea." 

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