'Slap in the face': Council asks province to rescind strong mayor powers for Orillia mayor

City council, in a show of strength, is fighting back against the so-called strong mayor powers granted to Mayor Don McIsaac on Friday.

In a recorded vote of 7-2 at Monday's tense council meeting, city politicians approved a motion calling on the province to rescind the powers granted to McIsaac. A copy of that resolution will be "immediately" sent by staff to Robert Flack, the minister of municipal affairs and housing, who granted the powers.

McIsaac did not declare a conflict of interest in the vote. He and Coun. Whitney Smith were the only ones to vote against the resolution, while the other seven members of council approved the motion. 

"Our hope is that this will send a very clear message to the minister that we, the members of council duly elected by the citizens of Orillia to represent their interests, very strongly oppose this and we want those powers rescinded," Coun. David Campbell said after the meeting.

Campbell was one of four councillors (four where required by quorum) that signed a letter Monday calling for the mayor to write a letter to Flack asking that the strong mayor power be revoked in Orillia.

Coun. Janet-Lynne Durnford was one of the four councillors who signed the letter.

"It's the prerogative of the minister how he chooses to respond to that request," said Durnford. "We are hopeful that he responds in our favour, but we acknowledge that it's a request and we can't ... direct his decisions."

McIsaac was granted strong mayor powers Friday by Flack following the city's declaration of a state of emergency March 30 after the ice storm knocked out power for all 35,000 people in the city. Many in the city were without power for several days; almost 1,000 Hydro One customers remained in the dark as of noon today.

Prior to the vote on the issue Monday, council met in closed session for more than two hours. Council is allowed to go into a private meeting where legal, personnel or property matters are the subject of conversation.

Following the closed session, Durnford went on the attack with a series of questions about the strong mayor powers. 

The Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act of 2022 was enacted to give mayors stronger powers with regard to speeding up the building of new housing. She asked McIsaac how he justified his request to Flack.

The mayor defended the move, saying he did so to expedite decision making related to the ice storm emergency.

"All the decisions I made were in the best interest of the safety, security and wellbeing of the citizens of Orillia," he said.

Durnford asked if decisions made during last week's crisis were made by him as the head of council or on the strength of strong mayor powers; if under strong mayor powers then council needed to be notified, she said.

When she asked if he intended the strong mayor powers to extended after the end of June, McIsaac replied, "I'm not sure yet."

Coun. Jay Fallis asked the mayor about how he communicated with Flack.

McIsaac said the minister reached out to him by phone and later said the information discussed is "confidential."

Earlier today, McIsaac stunned council when he announced he had used the strong mayor powers to appoint deputy CAO/solicitor Amanpreet Singh Sidhu to the position of CAO. On March 21, the city issued a news release saying they had hired Trevor Lee for that role; he was to have started on April 14. Effectively, he has been fired before starting work.

In response to a question from Fallis about the move, the mayor said the decision was made with the "best interests" of the city in mind.

"Any and all decisions I've made as mayor — with or without strong mayor powers — are made for the safety, security and wellbeing of Orillians. There is no exception to that." 

Fallis said he's heard from residents who say the mayor has taken advantage of the emergency to gain political advantage.

"No," said the mayor.

Campbell noted McIsaac had requested strong mayor powers earlier, before it was granted.

"I would suggest that it was under the guise of the emergency we were in, but was your request based on that?" he asked.

McIsaac replied that strong mayor powers were needed to deal with the emergency.

Campbell asked the mayor if he will commit to requesting the powers be rescinded once the emergency is over.

"But there is still significant work to do," said McIsaac, adding that he is more worried "about the future."

Coun. Tim Lauer said the pursuit of strong mayor powers is "totally disrespectful to council and totally disrespectful to the residents of Orillia."

McIsaac cut him off, saying he was "out of order."

Lauer added: "This is a slap in the face for democracy ... I think it's incumbent on this council and everybody in this community to appeal to the minister who doled this power out that it is not wanted here in Orillia ...and it should be revoked as soon as possible."

When Coun. Jeff Czetwerzuk asked what made McIsaac change his mind about strong mayor powers when he'd publicly stated only a couple of weeks ago that he didn't want strong mayor powers, McIsaac snapped back: "I don't know where you were for the last week, but we were having an emergency."

Czetwerzuk later re-asked the question and the mayor responded: "We are in a state of emergency and there were a lot of decisions that had to be made and it was a difficult time."

After the motion to send the resolution to minister Flack was passed, Smith spoke for the first time in the meeting.

"If we are to keep the strong mayor powers, we can see the good in strong mayor powers and our city can get $16 million for affordable housing then that's a good thing," said the Ward 1 councillor.

Strong mayor powers apply only to the head of council in designated municipalities in the province. Those powers are related to "provincial priorities" including the building of new homes, constructing and maintaining infrastructure to support housing including transit, roads, utilities and servicing.

Strong mayors have the power to, but are not limited to, appointing a CAO, hiring and firing department managers, directly assigning work to staff, appointing chairs of council committees and veto certain bylaws.