Heather Wright/The Independent

As politicians across Lambton condemn legislation that gives some mayors power to override council, Petrolia’s mayor says he’s not giving the new power up. At least not yet.

Monday, Petrolia council considered five letters from different Ontario municipalities condemning the legislation which gives mayors the authority to hire and fire the Chief Administrative Officers and directors of departments unilaterally and which gives mayors control of the budget. All of the letters, including one the neighbouring council of Plympton-Wyoming, call the powers undemocratic and ask the province to repeal them. (See more on Plympton-Wyoming’s discussion on page 8.)

Petrolia Councillor Liz Welsh wanted support the letters. But before any councillor could speak, Loosley said. “Right now, I do have strong mayors’ powers and I will consider what I’m going to do at a later date. But I will not, I’m not going to make any change or decision at this time.”

Council, in a recorded vote, supported the calls to end the Strong Mayors legislation. Only Loosley opposed the move.

Then, later in the meeting, a report on the Strong Mayor Legislation was discussed. Councillor Chad Hyatt noted the mayor could veto an action of council but council would have the right to try to overrule the mayor’s action. But there is a tight time frame for council to do that. 

Hyatt wanted to know if the town would change its rules of procedure so there will be a “mandatory special meeting if the mayor uses strong powers for veto.”

“I will be keeping all the powers at this time,” Loosley reiterated.

“I’m still going to keep everything. I’m not saying I’m going to use that. I may never use any of this, but I need more time before I make any changes. 

“If you want to make those changes, you’ve already done that by sending it to the province. They’re the ones that did this. I didn’t bring this forward. It was the province that said, ‘Here you go to try to speed up the housing development.’”

“I just want to make sure that council is given the opportunity to override” the veto,” Hyatt said noting to make that work, there has to be a mandatory meeting to deal with the issue. And Petrolia must put that in place, Hyatt said, since it is not mandatory in the provincial legislation. 

The province enacted the legislation in 2022 to give mayors in large urban centres the powers saying they were needed to moving housing developments forward in a time of a housing crisis. 

But Hyatt questions if Petrolia, one of 169 municipalities handed the power May 1, really needs it to push housing forward. He says the County of Lambton is the planning authority in Petrolia and he’s not sure how the mayor could use the powers in that case.

“I think we can still move it along and move it along faster, but it’s the county that puts on the final stamp of approval. We don’t, they do,” Loosley conceded.

“So even though I may say, let’s do this and override it, they can still hold it up. That’s my understanding. I don’t have any authority under with the under the county, other than sitting on as a county councillor.”

Town councillors received the report from Mandi Pearson, director of legal services for the town. 

Pearson says any procedural changes which will be necessary because of the Strong Mayors Act will likely come to council in June.