How powerful should the mayor of Orillia be?
The provincial government recently granted the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa expanded powers that will allow them to veto bylaws in conflict with provincial priorities, such as building housing, although such vetoes may be overruled by a two-thirds majority council vote.
Mayors will also be able appoint a chief administrative officer and hire and fire senior city department heads, barring statutory appointments such as auditor general, police chief and fire chief.
Under the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, the responsibility for preparing and tabling a city budget will be shifted from council’s hands and into the mayor’s.
Set to take effect shortly after the municipal election, on Monday Premier Doug Ford said strong mayor powers will come to additional large municipalities in Ontario next year.
OrilliaMatters asked the city’s three mayoral candidates to weigh in on the strong mayors act.
Mason Ainsworth said he is “100 per cent against the strong mayor system” coming to Orillia, though he said he still needs to review some specifics of the act.
“I think it can be amazing if you have the right person in the role, but I think history shows, in a lot of places, that 99 per cent of the time you don’t have the right person,” he said. “When you don’t have the right person with that kind of power, things can be terrible.”
If elected, Ainsworth said he will not use the strong mayor powers should they be expanded to Orillia.
“The big thing with democracy is making sure that the majority rules, and there’s the opportunity to do that now,” he said. “If I were given those powers, I would not be using them. It would be the council that decides these big decisions.”
Don McIsaac shared similar concerns, but also said he still needs to read the fine print of what the act entails.
“I think there’s a dark side to this, in the wrong hands, that could work out not so well if you have a mayor in there who goes rogue,” he said. “I think there’s some value, but I think, in the wrong hands, it might not work as well.”
McIsaac expressed concern about giving the mayor the power to singlehandedly hire and fire department heads.
“We need to look at that carefully. That’s a powerful thing and should be used sparingly,” he said.
John Maxwell, however, said he would like the act to be expanded to Orillia.
“I would love it to be expanded up to here because we have so much corruption in our city,” he said. “I would like to have a chance to do something about it.
“I don’t think it makes the mayor too powerful, if he’s a thinking mayor looking out for the city. Looking out for the citizens of the city, you’ve got to have leadership, and if you don’t have leadership, you have nothing," said Maxwell.
