Stratford has taken a step towards saying ‘thanks, but no thanks’ to the province with regard to the incoming strong mayor powers, taking the lead from Amherstburg and asking to be removed from the list of municipalities designated under the Strong Mayor legislation.
Councillor Mark Hunter put forward the initial motion to decline accepting the powers, while Coun. Jo-Dee Burbach suggested Stratford copy the move the Town of Amherstburg made earlier this month in asking Ontario Premier Doug Ford as well as the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to immediately remove them from the list.
Hunter said they were making a symbolic gesture with this decision, standing up against the adoption of use of the strong powers he feels are undemocratic.
“These powers do away with the majority rule for a council and it's undemocratic, and I share that opinion with several others,” he said. “Mayor (Martin) Ritsma indicated he will be issuing a statement on this once he sees where everything lands, I think in the next week or by the next council meeting. But this would be a fundamental shift to the way the city does business.”
Hunter talked about the lead up to Monday’s vote, referring to the delegation from Elain Strawbridge and her plea to mayor and council to not use these powers.
“Town hubs have been places where decisions are made with public dialogue in chambers, based on many nuanced levels of consideration,” she said in her presentation. “Stratford has made good decisions to preserve and invest in our identity that makes us world famous. Bill 39 where these powers come from short-circuits our dialogue and undercuts the very idea that we as an entity get to decide what’s next. People can be fired by a CEO-like mayor and you would have one-third of council making decisions – what is the message to councillors that their careful work and application of duty of care is diminished or unnecessary?”
The strong mayor powers were ostensibly handed down to municipal leaders to expedite housing starts, and Strawbridge says there is no substantiated proof this has happened yet in cities where these powers have already been handed down. She also argued that by stripping away a mayor’s support system when it comes to decision making and putting the jobs of those same people in just one person’s hands is no small matter.
“We must be future-focused,” she said. “It’s not about any one person, but it’s about putting too much power in the hands of one person, whoever that may be in the future. We have to decide now to consider future occupants of that chair. And what would happen to the level of debate? We need 11 voices at the table.”
The arguments that Strawbridge and Jane Marie Mitchell made, as well as Hunter’s initial motion, were heard. Coun. Larry McCabe said living in a time where the process of giving power to governmental agents at the rate that has been happening is concerning, and his faith in his fellow councillors makes him believe strong mayor powers are not necessary for Stratford.
“We have a chance to voice opinions on topics here, and I have learned from those and changed my opinion based on those conversations of council,” he said. “To move further away from democratic rights is sending a terrible message to the community.”
Asked if he thinks Ritsma is still pondering the use of these powers and what it would mean for the city, Hunter said he believes the mayor is wrestling with multiple thoughts on the topic and that because of the newness of it all that’s not surprising to him.
“I said last time when we talked about this, my concern is not with Martin – my concern is what if our next mayor decides that they want to build a 30-storey swimming pool for $500 million and put us all on the hook for it. We just have less control over that than we currently do.”
The vote on Hunter’s motion passed unanimously, but the strong mayor powers officially come into effect as of May 1. He knows it’s a symbolic gesture, but it’s one he says is worth making.
“Martin will have them whether he uses them or not because we can’t reject them,” Hunter said. “It’ll take some time to figure out how to work with that and we’ll see what comes down the line, but it is concerning. These powers are aimed at advancing the provincial priorities, but they can change those priorities without notice to the city … they can say, ‘We’re going this way now, and you have to do what we say.’ There is a concern about that, and as both a councillor and a resident, I don’t like the control being concentrated. From council’s perspective, I think we all agree that we work effectively together and under the strong mayor powers it would be like going from the mayor being a head of the board to a CEO.”
