Ontario government proposes expansion of strong mayor powers to 169 more municipalities

The Government of Ontario is continuing to bolster the unilateral decision-making powers of mayors across the province with a proposal to expand strong mayor powers to 169 additional municipalities effective May 1, including Stratford.

In 2022, through changes to the Municipal Act, strong mayor powers were first granted to the heads of councils in Toronto and Ottawa, and then to mayors in 48 additional municipalities in 2023. Though several municipalities declined the enhanced mayoral powers, a total of 47 mayors in Ontario now have these strong mayor powers.

“Heads of council are key partners in our efforts to build homes and infrastructure across the province,” said Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack in a press release announcing the latest proposed expansion. “By extending strong mayor powers to these additional municipalities, we are providing mayors every tool at our disposal to empower them to get homes and infrastructure built faster. Mayors know their municipalities best, and we support them in taking bold actions for their communities.”

Strong mayor powers include the ability to appoint a municipality’s chief administrative officer (CAO), hire certain municipal department heads and reorganize departments, create committees of council, propose the municipal budget, propose certain bylaws the mayor says advances a provincial priority, veto certain bylaws the mayor says could interfere with a provincial priority, and bring forward matters for discussion by council if the mayor says they could advance a provincial priority.

Stratford Mayor Martin Ritsma, just minutes after the announcement was made, originally told the Times that he is happy to be one member of council and didn’t ask for additional powers, though like other mayors poised to be given strong powers he didn’t know about the announcement prior to the media release being issued.

In a follow-up discussion, Ritsma said that after speaking with some area mayors about the powers, he understands the onus for dealing out the powers, though said that staff and council are united in intensifying and building as much housing as Stratford and area needs.

He further said that there are some powers he is not interested in using at all, such as vetoing; however, there are others that could be a boon for the Festival City, such as a mayor’s budget.

During the 2025 budget deliberations, Ritsma voted against its final approval indicating that he thought there was more work to be done to bring down the levy requirements. Notably, he made a motion to suspend all staff expansion requests given the financial pressure facing residents – though that motion failed.

Ritsma said that the idea of a mayor’s budget intrigues him as a way to start the process, but not to sideline the role of council in developing the budget. As he had said during the most recent budget talks, the mayor’s vote is just one of 11 and he reiterated that point in discussion with the Times.

“(But) I think council would get a better appreciation of where I stood, if at the start of the process I was able to say to staff ‘This is what the mayor is looking at,’” Ritsma said.

Additionally, given the recent retirement of longtime CAO Joan Thomson, the powers could allow Ritsma to unilaterally hire the city’s new top staffer – though he said that he would not be in favour of that move and is happy to work with the selection committee just struck by council.

He further stated that he hasn’t said yea or nay to the powers, though summed up his thoughts by saying that he understands the arguments for and against the powers and would not operate in a vacuum if he secured them.

“But in the end, in the absolute end, it always comes back to council,” Ritsma said. “There's no way that the mayor of this city would ever do anything that would go from my office to Queen's Park without council being involved.”

Yet instances like the recent use of strong mayor powers granted in the wake of the recent ice storm to reverse the hiring of a new CAO in favour of hiring from within by Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac, as well as public backlash to the proposed use of strong mayor powers in municipalities like Burlington and Caledon, have some worrying these powers have not yet been adequately tested and they may be a step too far.

In response to the recent announcement of the expansion from the province, the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO), which has been tracking the use of strong mayor powers since they were first introduced in Toronto and Ottawa in 2022, said there is no evidence to suggest this legislation has any impact on the number of housing starts in municipalities that have been granted the powers.

Instead, AMCTO says its research suggests strong mayor powers have blurred the political-administrative authority between the roles of heads of council and chief administrative officers (CAOs), threatening the neutrality of the public service and politicizing local government leadership.

“Looking at Ontario’s Housing Supply Tracker, there is no evidence to suggest that the use of strong mayor powers is helping to build housing,” said AMCTO spokesperson Jacquelyn Folville. “For example, of the 11 municipalities where mayors used powers in relation to staff and organizational structure, only three were on track to meet or exceed their 10-year target. We have more so been hearing about instances where the powers have created confusion by blurring the distinction of mayor and CAO roles or responsibilities, and where there's been operational issues – for example, affecting a recent council decision at the Town of Orillia.”

Zack Taylor, an associate professor of political science at Western University and a fellow at the Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance, has been among those sounding alarm bells about strong mayor powers since their introduction in Ontario in 2022.

“If we buy the argument that these powers can be used to expand housing in rapidly growing areas, it’s the larger municipalities in rapidly growing areas that already have these powers,” Taylor said. “So, bringing this to much smaller places, many of them slower-growth places, I’m not sure if it’s something that would move the needle.”

Taylor said the expansion of these powers is based on the premise that councils across Ontario are “gridlocked” when it comes to dealing with issues deemed as priorities by the province, something the associate professor doesn’t see a lot of evidence to support. He says the idea that giving “soft-dictatorial authority” to heads of council to move the needle on housing doesn’t really make a lot of sense.

“Ontario has a very elaborate planning system that has generally served the province well for decades going back to the Second World War,” he said. “As a result, we have fairly efficient housing production that’s fully serviced by water and sewer and that kind of thing. And if you look at other parts of North America, that isn’t necessarily a given. But I think there is a legitimate argument there is a housing shortage, it’s just is this the right way to address it and will this kind of thing make it happen? What we’ve seen so far is it’s really hard to find any kind of evidence that strong mayor powers have created any more housing than would have been created otherwise.

“ … I think a cynical perspective on it is this is a way for the province to transfer blame for the housing crisis onto mayors.”

Among the myriad issues he sees with strong mayor powers and this proposed expansion is the decision by the province to expand these powers to smaller municipalities with fewer staff.

“If we think this entire policy basically emerged out of Doug Ford’s special interest in Toronto, the City of Toronto’s administrative structure with 30,000-plus employees is enormous and multi-layered, so the idea of having the mayor being able to play a role in hiring and firing senior staff means that you’re only really looking at that top layer. When you go to smaller places, we know you can fit the entire staff of a municipality in one room. … So, what does it mean to give the mayor hiring and firing power over that kind of thing? I think what it really risks is arbitrary decisions getting made, people playing favourites – you hire uncle Joe or whatever,” Taylor said.

“ … The mayor can install anyone they want.”

Another red flag for Taylor, specifically among smaller councils with as little as six members, is the notion a strong mayor can introduce a bylaw that supposedly advances a provincial priority and see it passed with just one-third of council’s support. For a council with six members, one of whom is the mayor, that means it would require just one other councillor’s support to pass.

While Taylor said these powers could see some benefits when it comes to limiting council debate during budget deliberations to ensure annual budgets are passed in a timely manner, he sees this expansion of power as opening the door to mayoral candidates in future municipal elections running with the intention of using strong mayoral powers to advance their own agendas instead of what’s best for their communities. And, in many smaller and rural communities, Taylor said mayoral candidates often run unopposed.

“Next time around, they’ll run with the knowledge of having these powers,” Taylor said. “ … You could imagine in small places that don’t really have any local media – there isn’t a lot of scrutiny – that things could go off the rails pretty fast.”

With files from Connor Luczka, editor.