‘We’re elected to represent our community with one equal voice, one equal vote, and working together’

Heather Wright/The Independent

Plympton-Wyoming politicians want Premier Doug Ford scrap Strong Mayor powers.

The province started giving so-called Strong Mayor powers to municipal leaders in 2022 to help cut some of the perceived red-tape for new housing starts. The province had made building 150,000 homes a year a priority.

At first, only mayors in larger cities had the authorities, which allows them to override council decisions on provincial priorities as well as hire or fire a chief administrator or create a budget.
Council can overrule the mayor, but only with a two-thirds vote.

Mayors in Petrolia, Lambton Shores and Plympton-Wyoming were recently given Strong Mayor powers.
All welcomed the idea but said they couldn’t recall a situation in the last year which they might have needed to overrule their own council to get something done.

Wednesday, Plympton-Wyoming councillors passed a motion which “formally opposed to the use of strong mayor powers” and asked the legislation be repealed “as a matter of upholding the democratic rights of all elected officials.”

Councillor Kristen Rodrigues made the request. “This is no reflection on our mayor. He’s done a wonderful job here…I can say for myself, first term councillor a little over halfway through and you’re changing the goal posts.”

Councillor Bob Woolvett agreed this is not about Mayor Gary Atkinson, it’s about the future. “We don’t know who’s going to be sitting in that chair in the future or what they’re going to be like and we’ve seen some of that around the municipalities.

“This bothers me big time that mayor would have the power to hire fire the CAO on his own. We know from history that mayors and CEOs, sometimes they just don’t hit it off. I mean, that’s just the fact of life,” Woolvett said.

“Why any mayor would want this kind of authority to veto bylaws or make decisions over and above his council – can you imagine the split that could take place in situations like that, especially if the mayor can make a decision with only one-third of his council?

Deputy Mayor Netty McEwen agreed.

“What if we have someone who really likes those powers? It’s scary. An election may change the present situation,” she said.

Councillor Alex Boughen says aside from what another politician may do in the future, he’s concerned the principles of democracy remain intact.

“To me, it’s about preserving the collaborative democratic process that defines municipal government. That’s why I love municipal government, because it is so grassroots and shines a light on democracy and we’re elected to represent our community with one equal voice, one equal vote, and working together to make decisions for the community,” he said.

“I would also encourage residents who also agree with this, to the message to their MPPs,” Boughen added.

This isn’t the first time concerns have been raised about the legislation.

St. Clair’s deputy mayor didn’t mince words about the Strong Mayor powers handed to his council’s leader earlier this month.

“I think this is very undemocratic,” says Miller. “This is no reflection on our current mayor, but I think this is borderline dictatorship.

“If the mayor is going to make all decisions about who we hire and can veto motions that we make, then why are we here?” Mayor Jeff Agar says Miller has nothing to fear.

“You have a mayor that’s not going to boss anybody around them so we can take that to the bank,” he said