Strong mayor powers offered to two more area communities

By Richard Coffin

The province is extending offers of Strong Mayor Powers to Mattawa and West Nipissing.   

That announcement Wednesday, with 169 more communities being invited to get on board with the program to help deliver on provincial priorities, such as building more homes, transit and other infrastructure. 

North Bay, and 46 other municipalities across Ontario, are already involved.

The province says it’s a significant expansion that 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.

Officials say 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. 

“Heads of Council are key partners in our efforts to build homes and infrastructure across the province,” says Rob Flack, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “By extending strong mayor powers to these additional municipalities, we are providing mayors every tool at our disposal to empower them to get homes and infrastructure built faster. Mayors know their municipalities best, and we support them in taking bold actions for their communities.” 

Strong mayor powers and duties include: 

• Choosing to appoint the municipality’s chief administrative officer.
• Hiring certain municipal department heads and establishing and re-organizing departments.
• Creating committees of council, assigning their functions and appointing the chairs and vice-chairs of committees of council.
• Proposing the municipal budget, which would be subject to council amendments and a separate head of council veto and council override process.
• Proposing certain municipal by-laws if the mayor is of the opinion that the proposed by-law could potentially advance a provincial priority identified in regulation. Council can pass these by-laws if more than one-third of all council members vote in favour.
• Vetoing certain by-laws if the head of council is of the opinion that all or part of the by-law could potentially interfere with a provincial priority.
• Bringing forward matters for council consideration if the head of council is of the opinion that considering the matter could potentially advance a provincial priority.