Province extends Strong Mayor Powers to SWOX Township, some powers delegated back

Debbie Kasman, Tillsonburg Post Correspondent

On April 9, the Province of Ontario announced the expansion of Strong Mayor Powers to 169 additional municipalities, including the Township of South-West Oxford (SWOX), effective May 1, 2025.

These powers are intended to support shared provincial-municipal priorities, particularly the acceleration of housing approvals and the construction and maintenance of infrastructure such as roads and transit.

The expansion is part of the province's strategy to build 1.5 million new homes by 2031 and was enacted under the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act and the Better Municipal Governance Act, which amended the Municipal Act, 2001.

Staff provided a high-level overview on the mayor’s additional powers at the council meeting on June 8, 2025.

In July, SWOX council opted to delegate all powers that are eligible to be delegated, back to SWOX council or the municipality’s chief administrative officer (CAO), through a formal delegation bylaw.

The powers delegated back to council include choosing to appoint the municipality’s CAO, creating committees of council, assigning their functions and appointing the chairs and vice-chairs of committees of council. Powers given to the CAP include hiring municipal department heads and establishing and re-organizing.

Certain powers under provincial legislation are not eligible for delegation and must be retained by the mayor. These include the power to bring matters to council that advance certain provincial priorities and to veto any bylaws passed by council that may interfere with the advancement of those priorities, proposing the township's budget subject to council amendments, a mayoral veto and a council override process. Council can pass these bylaws if more than one-third of all council members vote in favour.

Recent advocacy by the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO), Ontario’s largest municipal professional association, states that while the government continues to justify the expansion of strong mayor powers as a tool to build housing, 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.

Alternatively, the association has found that strong mayor powers have blurred the political-administrative authority between the roles of mayors and CAOs, threatening the neutrality of the public service and politicizing local government leadership.

The association has expressed opposition to strong mayor legislation, calling specifically for the removal of mayors to directly hire or terminate any municipal staff.

Several municipalities, in addition to SWOX, have exercised this delegation authority in the interest of maintaining a collaborative governance model. The City of Woodstock, which has had Strong Mayor Powers since November 2023, adopted a formal delegation bylaw that returned many of these authorities to council, including the hiring of the CAO and committee appointments.

The District Municipality of Muskoka has also taken a similar approach. In Bracebridge and Huntsville, the respective mayors passed written decisions to delegate CAO hiring and organizational structure authority to council and the CAO, while retaining budget-related powers.