NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO — The mayors of the nine municipalities in Northwestern Ontario who have been granted strong mayor powers overwhelmingly say they are choosing not to use them.
While some mayors have formally delegated some or all of the expanded authority granted to them by the Ford government back to their councils and administration, others haven’t yet taken that step, but are going on the record saying they have no interest in changing how their councils operate.
Strong mayor powers, among other things, give mayors the authority to unilaterally hire and fire a municipality’s CAO or city manager and some other senior staff, to create council committees, appoint their leadership and assign their duties, propose municipal budgets, and veto certain bylaws if the mayor feels they go against “provincial priorities.”
Mayors Ken Boshcoff (Thunder Bay), Andrew Poirier (Kenora), Jack Harrison (Dryden), Andrew Hallikas (Fort Frances), Jamie McPherson (Greenstone) and Mark Thibert (Neebing) say they have delegated away all or some of those powers. Doug Lawrance in Sioux Lookout, Rob Ferguson in Atikokan and Deborah Ewald in Rainy River said they haven’t formally done anything like that, but all said they’re happy with their councils operating by consensus and don’t intend to use them.
Thunder Bay was the first municipality in Northwestern Ontario to get strong mayor powers in 2023. In that round, cities received the new powers if their mayor pledged in writing to meet housing targets — also becoming eligible for provincial housing funding — and mayor Ken Boshcoff did so against the wishes of city council.
He subsequently delegated the powers around employment of the city manager and senior staff back to council and the city manager, respectively. He also formally declared his intention not to exercise power over the 2024 and 2025 budgets.
What mayors in the region are saying
The other eight communities in the Northwest were unilaterally granted strong mayor powers by the Ford government on May 1, along with 161 other municipalities. There was no chance to opt-in or out for that round. Several mayors contacted by Newswatch said the imposition of those powers came as a surprise to them and they weren’t consulted about it.
“I didn't ask for it, I didn't petition for it,” Ferguson in Atikokan said. “It was just given, and it wasn't even offered.”
“It was just given, so, I really didn't have a choice in the matter.”
“We're a small municipality and … in my 19 years as mayor, we haven't really had any really contentious issues to deal with,” Ewald, in Rainy River, said. “We kind of go more by consensus, so the strong mayors thing is there, but for us right now, we don't really see any major problems like that we would need to use that particular legislation.”
“We're just going status quo (as) what we were before.”
Lawrance, the mayor of Sioux Lookout, said it’s “a bit awkward” being granted strong mayor powers part way through a term of office when it wasn’t an issue during the most recent election.
“I didn't run to be a strong mayor,” he said. “None of the councillors here ran assuming that they would not be a councillor in the sense that they've always been here, (and) that they would have a strong mayor.”
“So, that makes it awkward to just suddenly start assuming that midterm.”
Of the mayors who have formally delegated strong mayor powers away from themselves, Harrison, Hallikas, McPherson and Thibert say they’ve given up all the ones they can. In Kenora, Poirier has formally delegated CAO employment powers back to council, but voted against an advocacy motion brought before council in June requesting Kenora formally oppose strong mayor powers.
However, he maintained that he has no intention of abusing them and only would consider it if needed “to advance provincial priorities,” like housing and infrastructure development, adding that Kenora is “short hundreds of units.”
“I strongly believe that they're there and if they're used in the proper way, very judiciously, then there shouldn't be a problem,” he told Newswatch. “It's when people take that power and abuse it and start steamrolling (it) for everything in a municipality, then there will be problems.”
“I agree with that one-hundred per cent.”
Broader concerns
That advocacy motion opposing strong mayor powers is also being considered in Fort Frances. Council has instructed city staff to bring a formal resolution forward at a future meeting. Hallikas said he expects it to be passed unanimously.
“I really feel that the strong mayor powers weaken democracy,” Hallikas said. “I don't think that a mayor should be able to disregard or overturn a vote of a democratically elected council.”
“Mayors shouldn't be redoing bylaws that have been debated and that passed the democratic majority.”
That concern is echoed by many other opponents of strong mayor powers, saying it potentially puts too much authority in one elected official’s hands. The advocacy motion opposing them is being led by Paula Banks, a municipal councillor for the Township of Rideau Lakes in southeastern Ontario.
And while many mayors are eschewing them, Banks said that’s not unanimous (adding that she’s “hearing horror stories” in some southern Ontario communities) and, depending on who gets elected in future elections, that may only become more prevalent.
Banks said she’s concerned these powers will eventually be available in all 444 municipalities in Ontario.
“There's so many mayors saying … it deteriorates democracy, we have council members that are saying why would they even run?” she said. “People are frustrated, but the problem is the legislation was so poorly written, (decisions are) based on a mayor’s opinion.”
The organization representing senior municipal staff in the province is also against it. Alana Del Greco, the manager of policy and government relations with the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario, said in a statement to Newswatch “we continue to voice our opposition to strong mayor legislation and any expansion of the powers.”
“Strong mayor powers blur political-administrative authority, particularly between the mayor and CAO, threatening the neutrality of the public service and politicizing local government leadership,” she said.
“When mayors retain powers over staff, this negatively impacts municipal leaders and professionals leading to the disruption of municipal timelines, policies, procedures and resources.”
