To kick off strong mayor power discussions in Collingwood at Monday's committee of the whole meeting, Deputy Mayor Tim Fryer asked for some clarity.
What he got were some raised voices and frustration spilling out onto the council chamber floor.
At the end of council’s committee of the whole meeting on May 12, Fryer raised some concerns he had about strong mayor powers following a council training session on the matter at their May 5 meeting. He pointedly asked Mayor Yvonne Hamlin for her intentions on how she plans to use them.
As all mayors with the authority have the ability to delegate some of the powers back to the town’s CAO, including the hiring and firing of senior staff, Fryer asked for clarity on Hamlin’s plans on that front.
“Are you considering in any way to delegate back to council the powers?” Fryer asked.
Hamlin said she hadn’t yet turned her mind to that possibility, noting she's only had the powers for 12 days.
“I haven’t thought about using the powers, or not using them,” she said.
In April, the province announced it was extending strong mayor powers to 169 municipalities as of May 1, including Collingwood. Strong mayor powers give local mayors the power to hire and fire key staff, veto council decisions and present the town’s annual budget for consideration.
Under the legislation, any mayor with the powers can choose to delegate some of the powers, including appointing a CAO, creating, assigning functions and appointing chairs of committees of council, hiring certain municipal division heads or changing the organizational structure of their municipality.
On Monday, Hamlin said she had advised the town clerk Sara Almas the same day that she intended to delegate authority on organization of municipal structures to the town’s CAO, Sonya Skinner.
“I’ve also advised her that I want to delegate the power to deal with hiring and firing of department heads back to the CAO,” she said. “Those are two things I think should be CAO duties.”
Hamlin said something she’s thinking about right now is that the province has pledged a lot of money to Collingwood projects, and the town would be asking for more.
“Knowing how important the province is to our funding and our grants, I am not of a mind to say 'no thank you' to powers that have been extended just because I’m being asked,” she said. “I don’t have plans to use them, but I’m not about to throw it back in the province’s face.
“They have made this decision. It’s their decision to make. There’s no ability in the legislation for anybody to say 'no thank you,'” the mayor added. “I’m not thinking the sky is falling and I’m not going to take any pre-emptive points to get the province cross.”
But Fryer pushed on.
“My question was not about going to the province. This is about getting an understanding among us and trying to understand the complication this matter has thrown to us,” he said.
Hamlin fired back and started to raise her voice.
“I’m a very busy mayor. This is not an issue for me. I don’t know what’s coming. Why are you putting me on the spot like this?” she said to Fryer. “The province has said, these are the powers. I don’t have to say anything to you tonight, or to anybody. I have no desire to say to the province that they shouldn’t have done this. To me, that’s the message you’re asking me to send. I’m not prepared to send that message.”
Fryer said that wasn’t his intention.
“This is discussion at our table, and only at our table,” he said. “I was hoping not to offend you. I was asking for consideration. I’m pleased to hear you have.
“I wasn’t trying to put you on the spot. I apologize," Fryer added.
While Hamlin said she hadn’t yet considered how she would use her new strong mayor powers, during discussion, Coun. Kathy Jeffery pointed out that Hamlin had sent an email also on Monday to all council members asking them about the 2026 budget.
Under strong mayor powers, the budget transitions from being a collaborative effort of council to the mayor being the one to propose the budget by Feb. 1, subject to council amendments within 30 days.
“(The email) was about meeting in groups of two with the mayor to go over the budget. That’s moving the budget process outside of the public realm. I wanted to ask if there was any concern with that,” said Jeffery. “I would want to do budget discussions in the public realm.”
Hamlin took the opportunity to clarify the intent of her email.
“The email I thought I sent was not to go over the budget. We don’t have a budget yet," she said. "The email I sent, was (about that) in the next week or two, if council members would like to meet with me individually or in groups to review what strong mayor powers are, their concerns, and also if they have any preliminary thoughts about the budget.
“Nobody has to meet with me. They’re not budget meetings. It was just me reaching out," Hamlin added.
No motions were put on the floor at any point during the meeting to delegate strong mayor powers.
