They will soon have strong mayor powers, but Dysart et al’s Murray Fearrey and Minden Hills’ Bob Carter are still figuring out what that means for them and their townships.
On April 9, Ontario proposed to expand strong mayor powers to 169 additional municipalities effective May 1.
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing said the expansion “reflects Ontario’s commitment to streamline local governance and help ensure municipalities have the tools they need to reduce obstacles that can stand in the way of new housing and infrastructure development.”
The powers will allow heads of councils of six members or more “to support shared provincial-municipal priorities, such as encouraging the approval of new housing and constructing and maintaining infrastructure to support housing, including roads and transit,” the ministry said.
Dysart et al and Minden Hills have seven councillors, while Algonquin Highlands and Highlands East five.
Rob Flack, minister of municipal affairs and housing, said 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.”
Ontario’s strong mayor powers, initially introduced for Toronto and Ottawa in 2022, have been gradually rolled out across the province. There are 47 municipalities in Ontario with these enhanced powers, which the province says has helped to cut red tape and accelerate the delivery of key priorities in their communities.
“These enhanced powers come with increased accountability for heads of council and maintain essential checks and balances through the oversight of councillors,” the ministry said.
Fearrey said he’s just learning what it all means but, “it’s not going to change the way I operate in terms of being involved with staff hiring, and things like that. I’ve always been involved. I think it’s important that it be a team effort.”
He believes, “it’s going to help us on some of the planning issues; to free things up and make it a little bit easier to get housing started because we need to do that desperately. It should help us leverage provincial funding for some of these projects because it’s all about getting some housing built, getting some rental units out there. If we have a proposal, I think it’ll go a long way to disposition now. I think it’s going to help.”
Fearrey said one reservation he has is, “when you make one move, are you going to make that move all the time? That’s the dangerous part of shifting away from policy.”
Carter said the news caught Minden Hills by surprise, finding out when the minister made the announcement last week. They’ve only briefly looked at the implications.
He wants more clarity on the fact Minden Hills, and Dysart, work with the County of Haliburton. “We have Dysart and Minden, who have these powers, but the County does not and our plans are tied into the County. We need to be able to clarify and figure that out.”
He sees a benefit in things such as being able to move official plans ahead faster.
“The primary thing is … hopefully good news that we can use the power to help the community.”
Strong mayor powers and duties include:
• Choosing to appoint the municipality’s CAO.
• Hiring certain municipal department heads and establishing and re-organizing departments.
• Creating committees of council, assigning their functions and appointing the chairs and vice-chairs of committees of council.
• Proposing the municipal budget, which would be subject to council amendments and a separate head of council veto and council override process.
• Proposing certain municipal bylaws if the mayor thinks the proposed bylaw could potentially advance a provincial priority. Council can pass these bylaws if more than one-third of council members vote in favour.
• Vetoing certain bylaws if the head of council thinks all or part of the bylaw could potentially interfere with a provincial priority.
• Bringing forward matters for council consideration if the head of council thinks considering the matter could potentially advance a provincial priority.
