The mayors of Toronto and Ottawa will have broad new powers that will give them sole responsibility for preparing the city budget for council approval, as well as the ability to hire and fire department heads as they see fit and veto some decisions made by the counselors.
The new legislation, titled “Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act”, was formally introduced at Queen’s Park on Wednesday afternoon.
The proposed changes outlined in the legislation would allow the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa to override the council’s approval of a by-law when they believe using the veto would “advance a provincial priority.”
However, they would have to overturn the statute as a whole and would not have the ability to pick and choose which specific aspects or amendments to block.
There is also nothing in the legislation that allows empowered mayors to push through bylaws without council approval.
The Ford government has not provided a list of items that might qualify as a “provincial priority” issue at this time, but a ministry official speaking on background during a technical briefing said there will be “a power for regulation” included in the legislation which will allow the government to “prescribe what those provincial priorities are”.
The official said the government’s plan to build 1.5 million homes over the next decade would likely qualify as a provincial priority, as would the need for “critical infrastructure around transit roads and things this nature”.
However, ministry officials say the way the legislation is written will effectively mean it will be up to the mayor to determine whether the ordinance it overturns actually interferes with a designated provincial priority.
That veto could then only be overridden by a two-thirds vote in the city council, which would have to happen within 21 days of the use.
Contracting authority and chiefs of fire brigades
The introduction of the legislation comes about three weeks after news broke that the Ford government was considering giving strong US-style mayoral powers to the chief magistrates of Toronto and Ottawa.
In addition to the veto power, the legislation also gives a host of other new and improved powers to the mayors of Ontario’s two largest cities.
One of the big changes would be that the responsibility for drawing up the budgets would be transferred from the city council as a whole to the mayor’s office.
The City Council would still have to approve the budget and could pass amendments, although the mayor would have the option to use a separate veto power to override those amendments.
The changes would also give the mayor sole authority to appoint a chief administrative officer, hire fire department chiefs and create or reorganize departments.
The ministry says these powers, however, would not apply to statutory appointments such as the chief constable or medical officer of health.
Speaking to CP24 on Wednesday before the details of the legislation were revealed, Toronto Mayor John Tory said that even with enhanced powers, his approach to being mayor “will not change” if he is re-elected to the October
“From my point of view, this is not going to change the way I do my job. My job is to work with all the members of the city council who want to work with me and continue to do that, but at the end of the road I also want to to find as many ways as possible to do things faster, to get more homes built faster and to make sure that the transit plan we agreed as governments actually gets built,” he said.
The proposed law, if approved, would take effect at the start of the council’s next term on November 15.
Premier Doug Ford has previously said he is open to extending the enhanced powers to mayors in other major cities, but for now it will only apply to Toronto and Ottawa.
More to come….