THUNDER BAY — A number of Thunder Bay city councillors are expressing alarm over the looming imposition of strong mayor powers by the province, with some suggesting the move will undermine local democracy and place too much authority in the hands of one person.
Premier Doug Ford announced the expansion of strong mayor powers to 21 new cities including Thunder Bay, along with housing targets for those communities, earlier this week.
The province has already bestowed the powers on 29 of Ontario’s largest cities, beginning with Toronto and Ottawa last year.
The move has been controversial, with a number of mayors — including Olivia Chow, recently elected in Toronto — pledging not to make use of the new powers.
While it was previously believed strong mayor powers would only be implemented if city council approved a housing pledge, the province made it clear on Monday council’s approval would not be needed.
Instead, the government says mayors themselves simply need to pledge, in writing, to meet its housing targets by Oct. 15 to receive the expanded powers.
Coun. Kristen Oliver, who chairs the city’s intergovernmental affairs committee, called that alarming.
“I was 100 per cent surprised that it rolled out the way that it did,” she said. “This was coming to council to look at the housing pledge and then determine where we wanted to go with the strong mayor powers.”
“I think at that point, it was something I could live with, where councils were still engaged in the conversation and had that ability to work directly with their mayor. But to just arbitrarily make decisions now as to who’s going to have strong mayor powers and who isn’t, and the speed at which these decisions are rolling out, I think is incredibly alarming.”
Boshcoff has already signaled his intention to seek strong mayor powers, while suggesting he would not make frequent use of his expanded authority.
The strong mayor regulations would allow Boshcoff to hire and fire the city manager and some department heads, reorganize city departments, propose the city budget subject to council amendments, create committees, and appoint committee chairs.
The powers also allow mayors to pass bylaws with the support of just one third of council, and to veto bylaws passed by council in certain cases involving provincial priorities, which for now includes the Ford government’s goal of seeing 1.5 million homes built across Ontario by 2031.
Asked in an interview if he’d be comfortable using those powers to override a council majority, Boshcoff discounted the possibility, without entirely ruling it out.
“No, that's way down the road, and primarily, we're not facing any issues right now where the mayor is losing votes 12-to-1,” he said. “We’ve got a very cohesive council, we've come to considerable agreement on lots of difficult issues, and we're getting through things. So it's not something I go, ‘OK, my gun is loaded.’”
Boshcoff’s colleagues didn’t appear to share his confidence.
“I am extraordinarily concerned about what this means for municipal democracy,” said Coun. Andrew Foulds. “My early reading of the powers are [that] it concentrates an extraordinary amount of authority in the mayor’s office around legislation, around staffing. I have some grave concerns about this.”
Oliver said the province still hasn’t laid out a clear rationale for the move to a strong mayor system.
“We can all speculate why we think they’re doing it, but we don’t know why, and there’s been no frank conversations or communications for that matter coming from the government on the benefits,” she said. “Like, sell it to me — why do you think this is a positive for municipalities for one person to wield this power?”
“I just feel this is the erosion of democracy that we’re seeing right now. I don’t quite understand why the provincial government has decided that mayors should wield all this power and muting the municipal councils. I feel like it’s a sad day for Ontario.”
Coun. Shelby Ch’ng said there could be upsides to the strong mayor system, but expressed concern it could open the door for abuse by some elected officials.
“It’s powerful and it’s dangerous, and it could also be a good thing, much like the invention of the internet,” she said. “Only time will tell what it’s going to mean for Thunder Bay. I think we have a bit of a benevolent leader in Ken, so that’s what I’m clinging onto and hoping he’s going to use his powers for good.”
She called the powers a “game-changer” for municipal governance, and one implemented without consultation.
“Council has been completely circumvented — my power as a council member has been significantly decreased,” she said. “I think it’s by design that there was no consultation, because there would have been push-back from council members.”
“I think we’re going to see some extremes in municipal governance, whereas before we always had a bit more of a robust group of people who can balance things out.”
City manager Norm Gale said strong mayor powers will “profoundly change the way a municipality functions.”
Administration is set to present more detailed information on how the legislation will affect decision-making in a report that’s expected to be presented to city council in late September.
“The public and stakeholders will need to understand how the municipality functions, where decisions are coming from, and who makes those decisions,” Gale said.
Foulds said the report will be important in clarifying exactly how the changes will play out.
“I think members of council will be asking some tough questions, and frankly, we’re going to have to be counselled on what we can and can’t do, legislatively — what remains in council’s authority. There needs to be clarity on that.”
