Perth South councillors and staff express concern over strong mayor powers

Council takes no action for now

By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Though some councillors and staff expressed concern over how they might be used in the future, Perth South council has not joined other Ontario municipalities, including neighbouring St. Marys, in expressing opposition to the recently expanded strong mayor powers.

After the Province of Ontario officially extended strong mayor powers to 169 more municipalities effective May 1, many municipal councils and experts have expressed concerns over granting heads of councils unilateral decision-making powers. At Perth South’s July 8 council meeting, township councillors and the mayor had the opportunity to weigh in on the wider implications of these powers.

“I’d like to go on the record that I just have serious concerns about this and it being extended,” Coun. Jaime Martin said during the council discussion. “First off, let me say I trust our mayor, but we’re making a decision for future (councils and mayors). I understand we have (these powers) already and it’s not a matter of anyone asking us if we wanted them or not, but I would like to speak against it in that the fact that the mayor can propose and adopt the budget; like why are we all here? It’s too far in my personal opinion.”

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. In many cases, a strong mayor can pass eligible resolutions with just one-third of council support.

As these powers have now been expanded to municipalities with councils comprising six or more members, that could mean decisions can be made by a mayor with as few as one other member of council’s support.

“Matters that were previously decided by the majority of council could now be decided by the mayor,” CAO Fred Tranquilli said during the meeting. “ … Previously, where the councils would make a decision with the majority, the council would not be involved in those decisions if the mayor chose not to involve them.

“The motivation, really, is the province has been convinced that the councils are the problem, that the councils are in the way of advancing development or approving housing developments or other interests that the provincial government has. They see the councils as being easily persuaded by activist groups and that in those communities where the province has offered funding for communities that have accepted housing targets in return for additional funding, they see the mayors as being in the best position to advance those initiatives. … That’s the rationale. In my experience with municipal government, I’ve never felt a municipality has been an obstacle. Usually, the municipalities are run very efficiently and on very lean budgets and usually process things very quickly.”

After the expansion of strong mayor powers was announced, 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, flying in the face of the claim by the province that the legislation is meant to help municipalities build housing.

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.

“My intention is to go to (the Association of Municipalities of Ontario annual conference) in August and probably learn a bit more about what people are choosing to do,” Perth South Mayor Sue Orr said. “Currently, I don’t feel as though I have to do anything. When we come closer to the budget cycle, I’m probably going to (delegate the budget) over to staff, but we are not officially doing anything until we’re closer to that.”

Though, like some other small municipalities in Ontario, the council for neighbouring St. Marys recently passed a motion that effectively asked the province to consider removing the town from its list of municipalities with strong mayor powers, primarily over concerns around the erosion of council’s decision-making power and how future mayors may opt to use the powers to further their own agendas, Perth South council simply received the staff report on strong mayor powers for information and took no further action.

“We could write a letter and say we opposed it, but in reality, it doesn’t really matter; the powers are still there even if we oppose them,” Coun. Mark Bell said. “We could oppose it in this room, but it doesn’t really do anything.”