The Blue Mountains council has passed a resolution expressing its opposition to the provincial government’s plan to grant the town strong mayor powers.
At its meeting on April 22, council took the uncommon step of waiving its procedural bylaw to allow a motion opposing the strong mayor powers to come forward immediately for a vote.
Under normal circumstances, Coun. Gail Ardiel’s resolution on strong mayor powers would have been announced as a notice of motion and voted on by council at a future meeting. However, council voted 5-1 in favour of waiving the rules of the procedural bylaw, which are in place to ensure the public, staff and council has the opportunity to see ahead of time the business council will be considering at a meeting, to allow an immediate vote.
The strong mayor powers announced recently by the provincial government were a hot topic at the meeting. Council lifted two items of correspondence concerning the provincial plan from the consent agenda for discussion.
The strong mayor powers from the province will give the mayors of 169 Ontario municipalities sweeping new powers to veto council decisions and hire and fire municipal staff. The new authority being given to mayors represents a major change in municipal governance in Ontario, where "majority rules" has always been the order of the day for local councils.
“I am gobsmacked. I think it is so frightening,” said ouncillor Paula Hope. “The powers, whether they’re used or not, are there now. Council has virtually no say. I think this has to be vigorously opposed.”
During the discussion, Ardiel said she had a notice of motion she planned to present later in the meeting that would ask the province to take The Blue Mountains off the list of municipalities receiving the strong mayor powers and that would also request the mayor to delegate the new authority back to council.
Coun. June Porter called the new authority “irresponsible” and noted that there is no evidence strong mayor powers will help get more houses built in Ontario. Porter also noted that the letter to the town from Rob Flack, the province’s minister of municipal affairs and housing, implicitly stated that the province “expects” mayors to use the new authority.
“I am very, very concerned,” said Porter.
Acting CAO Adam Smith said staff are planning a full report on the new powers being given to the mayor that will come forward in the coming weeks. However, this did not satisfy council’s desire to take immediate action on the matter.
After some procedural discussions, Clerk Corrina Giles told council the town’s procedural bylaw has a rarely used section that allows its rules to be waived if council wants to vote on an item immediately.
“I think it’s important we speak out and speak out now about how we feel about the democratic process,” said Hope.
Coun. Shawn McKinlay was the lone member of council to vote against waiving the procedural bylaw. McKinlay said if council dropped the rules to take immediate action it was acting in a manner that was “no better than the province.”
He said he was concerned a resolution was coming forward for a vote that local residents had not seen in advance. McKinlay did note that he was not opposed to the contents of Ardiel’s resolution.
“I’m not against (this resolution),” said McKinlay. “I’d rather this be done in our normal procedure.”
Porter said she could support waiving the rules to take immediate action because the province had not given local municipalities a “long runway” on the strong mayor powers issue.
“The procedural bylaw has taken into account that sometimes it needs to be waived,” she said.
Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon noted that local municipalities are in a position that they must follow the rules the province puts in place, but he said he objected to the new strong mayor powers coming into effect in the middle of a council term.
“The province will do what they want,” said Bordignon. “My problem is the timing of the term. That’s not what the public voted for. The timing is not fair to the democratic process.”
The resolution passed in a 5-1 vote with McKinlay opposed. Mayor Andrea Matrosovs was absent from the meeting.
