FORT FRANCES — Mayor Andrew Hallikas says he has “mixed feelings” about what the Ontario government calls “strong mayor powers.”
“Right off the top of my head, I’m concerned that it might have the potential to weaken democracy,” he told Newswatch just hours after the province notified him that his border town will be eligible for strong mayor powers effective May 1.
The additional powers that Hallikas and 168 other mayors are being offered include appointment of a chief administrative officer on their own and the ability to veto a bylaw if the mayor thinks “all or part of the bylaw could potentially interfere with a provincial priority.”
Currently there are 47 Ontario municipalities with strong mayor powers, including Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie.
The 169 additional municipalities announced Wednesday include six others in Northwestern Ontario besides Fort Frances: Kenora, Dryden, Rainy River, Sioux Lookout, Atikokan and Greenstone.
Hallikas noted that he “wasn’t elected with this mandate (of strong mayor powers), and I think if they were going to give strong mayor powers to the mayors of municipalities, they should have announced it before the election, because that might have an effect on who people vote for. So that’s a concern that I have.
“And similarly with our councillors — councillors ran on the understanding that they would get a vote, the mayor would get a vote, and the majority would prevail. That’s pure democracy in action, and now that’s changed.”
Hallikas said the province is trying to empower mayors for more efficient municipal government but may be going about it the wrong way.
“I get that the province is doing this for their own reasons, that they made a promise to deliver 2.5 million homes and they’re nowhere near that, so they want some efficiencies and they want to move forward on infrastructure. I get that.
“But I don’t know if this is necessarily going to accomplish that. I understand that it might work well in large urban centres, but for small rural northern communities …
“All of us here are in favour of delivering much needed housing if possible, but … we need additional funding, not additional powers for the mayor.”
Small municipalities such as Fort Frances “just don’t have the resources that the larger urban areas have,” he said. “And so a godsend to us would be programs that funnel actual funding to us.”
Hallikas expressed a desire to work with councillors rather than veto them.
“We have an excellent democratically elected council, and I have every confidence in them to do the right thing in terms of creating additional housing should the opportunity present itself, or should we have the resources to do so.”
The extension of strong mayor powers is “to help deliver on provincial priorities, such as building more homes, transit and other infrastructure across Ontario,” said a government news release.
“This significant expansion reflects Ontario’s commitment to streamline local governance and help ensure municipalities have the tools they need to reduce obstacles that can stand in the way of new housing and infrastructure development,” said the release.
“The powers would allow heads of council … to support shared provincial-municipal priorities, such as encouraging the approval of new housing and constructing and maintaining infrastructure to support housing, including roads and transit.”
Like Hallikas, lawyer and former Fort Frances councillor Doug Judson has concerns about how strong mayor powers could change local democracy.
“I think that it is fundamentally altering the democratic balance of the municipal government as an institution,” he told Newswatch.
“The architecture of the municipality is such that the mayor is the leadership figure on council and is the sort of ceremonial chief executive of the municipality, but they provide that leadership by consensus building and (chairing) council meetings.
“The scales become very tipped when you look at the scope of the powers that can be invoked when the mayor chooses to exercise the new strong mayor powers that are set out in the legislation.”
