Mayor Don McIsaac was looking for council's support Monday so Orillia could be among the municipalities in Ontario receiving funds under the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act enacted by the Doug Ford government.
McIsaac said Orillia will be losing out on about $16.5 million for housing between between 2021 and 2031 if the city doesn't get with the program that started in 2022.
"Our common goal is to figure out what we need to do to get the money. There's no other motive than that," McIsaac said.
Council members to his left and right at the table shot their hands up in protest, saying the province's funds are directly linked to strong mayor powers, which they don't support.
Coun. David Campbell said he knows there is a great need for housing but doesn't support getting funds this way.
"In my opinion, this motion is less to do with housing and much more to do with strong mayor powers. The two are linked. In fact, the legislation is called Strong Mayors, Building Homes," he said.
Campbell said strong mayor powers include veto power over bylaws, as well as appointment and dismissal powers over city managers, department leaders, and committee chairs.
"So, to me, what strong mayor powers does is it overrides our democracy," Campbell said.
He said he supports the current council model where each member, including the mayor, has a single vote.
Every municipality that has received the housing funding through this act has also established strong mayor powers, he added. Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall has strong mayor powers, for example, Campbell noted.
McIsaac reiterated he was simply looking for greater housing funds.
Coun. Janet-Lynne Durnford concurred with Campbell, adding there are no current amendments to the legislation that would allow Orillia to receive building faster funding without being awarded strong mayor powers.
"In my opinion, passing this motion would be a de facto request for stronger mayor powers for the City of Orillia, and I cannot support that," she said.
Orillia is already doing all it can to secure funding for affordable housing, she said, pointing to the $4.5 million the city recently received in federal funding.
"We don't need strong mayor powers to build more housing," Durnford said.
Amanpreet Sidhu, the city's deputy CAO/solicitor, would not get into the "political" conversation over strong mayor powers but said the act includes 10 per cent of the funding for small, rural and northern municipalities that have not been assigned a housing target, and that includes Orillia.
"There's an opportunity to request funding without housing targets without being included in anything else," he said.
When Durnford said the legislation was unclear, McIsaac stated he was simply trying to get housing funds.
"All I'm trying to do is — how do we get our share? I don't want to burden the taxpayers of Orillia with $16 million over a food fight," McIsaac said.
Durnford replied instantly, saying, "Respectfully, I would not call a fundamental change to how democracy is happening in Orillia as a food fight."
Coun. Tim Lauer said the $16 million in funding is "inaccurate" because Orillia would only qualify for a portion of the 10 per cent and be in competition with more than 100 other municipalities.
"The notion that we are turning down $16 million is inaccurate." he said.
He suggested council defer the item and get more information from staff about how Orillia can apply for a portion of the 10 per cent of funds.
"Let's figure out how to get that," said McIsaac.
The motion to defer was passed.
