Outgoing Mayor Christian Provenzano is expressing strong reservations about a plan to give some Ontario mayors new powers, including the ability to appoint their own chief administrative officers or override certain council decisions. “I saw it. I read it. I looked at it,” Provenzano tells SooToday, referring to the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act introduced this week in the Ontario legislature. “I don’t think it’s a good development for municipalities,” said the mayor. “I think it will really detract from the importance and influence of the council itself.” “It’s going to strengthen and really strengthen the mayors and reduce the councils,” said Provenzano, who is not seeking re-election after serving two terms. The bill would initially allow the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa to override council approval of a bylaw, such as a zoning law, that would block a set of provincial priorities that would later be put into regulations. Examples of priorities given by government officials include the goal of building 1.5 million homes in 10 years and building critical infrastructure. Proposed new powers for “strong mayors” include:
recruitment of the head of administration and heads of municipal departments creation and reorganization of departments appointing chairmen/vice-chairmen for designated committees and local councils; the establishment of new committees raising issues for council consideration on provincial priorities veto statutory laws passed by the council if they relate to matters of provincial priority proposing the municipality’s budget
A council could override the mayor’s veto with a two-thirds majority.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said he would review the legislation but generally supports the idea. But in Ottawa, the reception was quite different. Mayor Jim Watson, who is not seeking re-election, said Ottawa does not need those powers, nor has it asked for them. “I don’t quite see how giving me more powers is going to help build more houses,” Watson told The Canadian Press. Mayors of other major cities have expressed interest in such powers, and Steve Clark, the municipal affairs and housing minister, left the door open for more municipalities to be added to the legislation later. If passed by the Legislature, the changes would go into effect on Nov. 15, 2022, the day the city council’s new term begins. “I would hate to see it grow beyond Toronto and Ottawa. I think it would be detrimental to municipal governance in communities like Sault Ste. Marie,” said Mayor Provenzano. “I think there’s a lot of value in having to make group decisions. And I think there’s a lot of risk in giving one person the kind of power that the province wants to give to the mayors themselves.” “If you take one example, just one example, a powerful mayor could appoint whoever he saw fit to be the CAO [chief administrative officer]. If you look at the city of Sault Ste. Marie, we do this collectively as a council. It is a council process and the mayor has to work with councilors to make that choice. I believe it is important that councilors have an influence on who will lead the municipal organisation. This is an example where I think it becomes problematic.” “Toronto has a City of Toronto Act. If there are powers that the mayor of the City of Toronto should have in order to do his job more effectively, I think to some extent it’s much more understandable than the rest of the province because his size of the City of Toronto and its operations and employee base and budget.” “When you’ve elected a group of people to do something and that group of people has to come to a consensus or a majority decision to do something, there’s less risk of making really bad decisions when you have a number of people who have honest input into the decision.” “But you can elect a really poor mayor who has tremendous power, who can use that power to really shake things up. I could see with the city of Toronto, and to a lesser extent Ottawa, wanting to give the mayor a little more power than they have right now. But I don’t see it having a province-wide role.” “I think you have to be very careful what extra powers you give and why you give them. What problem are you trying to solve.” “The truth is, mayors don’t have a lot of power. The system is designed that way on purpose, so the mayor has to work with the council, who is also duly elected, to do things that they collectively determine are in the city’s best interest, not that someone in his unilateral capacity judges that it is in the interest of the city”. “There is a huge difference. You are more likely to align a council decision with the best interest of the city if the mayor has to find a solution that has the support of a majority of the council, than if the mayor needs no support and can do whatever the mayor wants. mayor,” Provenzano said. If passed by the Legislature, the changes would go into effect on Nov. 15, 2022, the day the city council’s new term begins. – with files from Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
