Why your Mayor endorsed Ford
With "Strong Mayor" powers, Ontario's municipal leaders are extensions of the Ford government
Does your mayor really love Doug Ford? During these short weeks of a snap election, has your mayor loudly and enthusiastically endorsed your local Conservative candidate?
You may have noticed, especially if you’re a social media user, Ontario mayors are falling over each other to take their picture with Doug and the rest of Team Ford. Local media (where it still exists) is full of white men in chains of office, grinning and shaking hands with their local Conservative candidates. Provincial, regional and even national media have amplified these endorsements.
Last fall, Morgan had the pleasure of helping advocate and real estate broker, Nina Deeb, put the finishing touches on her recently released book, Seven Minutes. Deeb’s book is a compendium of her written and oral testimony as a delegate on proposed legislation, speaking on economic and housing policy at Queen’s Park and at regional and municipal councils.
Deeb’s book includes her delegations on Bill 3, called the Strong Mayors Building Homes Act, 2022 (passed September 2022), and Bill 39, Better Municipal Governance Act, (passed December 2022).” Looking at the details of this legislation, the reasons for the current love affair between Ford and the mayors becomes clear.
Bill 3 is officially titled “An Act to amend various statutes with respect to special powers and duties of heads of council”. This legislation gave Ontario mayors unprecedented powers over chief administrators, the organizational structure of municipalities, local boards, committees, meetings, and budgets.
Mayors were also given power to veto council. The legislation gives mayors authority to veto by-laws and override council. In order to override a mayoral veto, council would need a two-thirds majority vote, rather than just a majority vote. Tellingly, the legislation specifically enables mayors to veto increases to city wide development charges, which developers must pay.
In guidance to its municipal clients, law firm Hicks Morley outlined some of the powers mayors now hold under this legislation.
- The mayor is now responsible for proposing a budget for the municipality and presenting it to council for consideration. Council is able to make changes to the mayor’s proposed budget, which the mayor can then veto. Council can only override a mayoral veto with a two-thirds majority vote.
- The mayor can determine the organizational structure of the municipality by hiring, dismissing and exercising other prescribed employment powers over municipal department heads, including the Clerk, Fire Chief, Treasurer, Integrity Commissioner, Chief of Police, and Medical Officer of Health, making these functions extensions of the mayors, who could potentially be extensions of the Ford government themselves.
- The mayor has authority to establish, dissolve or assign functions to prescribed committees and local boards, and gives mayors authority to unilaterally change the make-up of a committee.
- Mayors are authorized to direct items to council, and to direct staff to develop proposals to be brought forward for council consideration, if it can be argued items and proposals could potentially advance a “provincial priority.”
- The mayor can veto bylaws that could potentially interfere with a prescribed “provincial priority.”
The guidance also notes that Bill 3 provides the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing the authority to designate other heads of council. In essence, the Ontario Minister of Housing can choose the mayor of an Ontario municipality.
The Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO) was upfront with its fears about Bill 3 before it was passed:
Bill 3: Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act in the Ontario legislature comes with significant risk of politicizing local government leadership as well as adding to the administrative burden of our members and other municipal staff.
AMCTO, and other critics, shared serious concerns that this legislation would be applied beyond Toronto and Ottawa to other cities, or “urban populations” as referenced in the bill, and these fears were founded. In June 2023, the powers were extended to mayors of 26 additional municipalities, including Ajax, Barrie, Brampton, Brantford, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Clarington, Guelph, Hamilton (to mayor Andrea Horvath), Kingston, Kitchener, London, Markham, Milton, Mississauga, Niagara Falls, Oakville, Oshawa, Pickering, Richmond Hill, St. Catharine’s, Vaughan (to mayor Stephen DelDuca), Waterloo and Whitby.
Bill 39, ironically titled by the government as the Better Municipal Governance Act, is a companion piece to Bill 3. Bill 39 made amendments to City of Toronto Act, 2006; Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Repeal Act, 2022; and Municipal Act, 2001. These are some of the key amendments:
- The legislation gives the Mayor of Toronto (and mayors of other “designated municipalities”) authority to require council to consider and vote on any bylaw that could potentially advance “provincial priorities.” City council is required to pass the bylaw if only one-third of members vote in favour of it.
- The Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve, which comprises a section of the greenbelt, was essentially dissolved and any claims or proceedings about the changes were prohibited. This opens up new possibilities for development in Durham Region, specifically in Pickering.
- The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing was given authority to appoint the head of council (a sort of “super mayor”) for The Regional Municipality of Niagara, The Regional Municipality of Peel and The Regional Municipality of York.
- These heads of council have authority to require council to consider and vote on any bylaw that could potentially advance “provincial priorities.” These bylaws can be passed if only one-third of members vote in favour.
In December of 2024, the province did appoint the new Chair of the Regional Municipality of York, Eric Jolliffe. Jolliffe is a former chief of York Regional Police, in yet another illustration of the Ford government’s cozy relationship with the police. (The provincial appointee to the board of York Regional Police is currently “developer” Mario Cortellucci.)
As might be expected, given that “super mayor” powers for Niagara are on the table, all the Niagara mayors have endorsed Ford.
In terms of who benefits from these pieces of legislation, The Toronto and York Region Labour Council published this infographic for its membership.
Though media coverage of both bills was almost non-existent, there was concern and outrage from organizations such as the Ontario Federation of Labour (which called the legislation an “attack on democracy”), and Maytree (which said Bill 39 is “destroying the foundations of majority rule”). Policy Options, a publication of The Institute of Research on Public Policy, called the bill “a gross violation of democratic principles.”
Notably, and uncharacteristically, The Sun’s Brian Lilley, who lives as common law spouse with Ivana Yelich (Ford’s deputy chief of staff, stakeholder relations, media relations and forward planning) and can be reliably counted to carry water for Ford, not only wrote about Bill 39, but he called it an “affront to democracy.”
As for the rest of mainstream media in Ontario, both bills were passed with no meaningful media coverage or analysis.
Bringing it back to our current provincial election, these pieces of legislation mean the mayors, essentially, work directly for Ford’s government, and can ultimately be chosen (or fired) by Ford’s government. The Ford government has only one person in each municipality it needs to persuade, encourage or bully - if the mayors and the government are in alignment, the local councils of Ontario’s 440+ municipalities are largely irrelevant. In such a systematically corrupt system, the rewards for mayors, in terms of aligning with the Ford government, could be very lucrative.