Municipalities that don’t want “strong mayor” powers but are stuck with them anyway, are also having difficulty figuring out what they mean.
That includes Deep River, which was one of the 169 municipalities granted the powers by the provincial government at the beginning of May.
The province says the “strong mayor” powers are aimed at helping to deliver on provincial priorities, such as building more homes, transit and infrastructure in Ontario.
Council held an orientation session recently to try to come to grips with the impacts they will have on the municipality, and came away from it with as many questions as answers.
The orientation session was led by the town’s chief administrative officer, Sean Patterson, and the municipality’s solicitor, Ian Kuehl, who walked council through the intricacies of the legislation, including how the mayor can veto decisions of council.
“What’s really clear is there’s going to be some struggles throughout the province with this,” Patterson said of the legislation.
“There’s some conflicting information. Interpretations are different from one place to the next.”
Kuehl suggested the legislation has been made deliberately confusing by the province.
“There are so many regulations when you read through the strong mayor powers. It constantly says ‘if there’s a regulation, if there’s a regulation’,” he said.
“Essentially, the government has set this up so they can change it on a whim”…
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