Local NDP MPP tables motion to repeal Strong Mayor Powers legislation
The New Democrat MPP for Windsor West has tabled a motion to repeal the Strong Mayor Powers legislation.
Lisa Gretzky tabled the motion on Wednesday in the Ontario Legislature, urging the Doug Ford government to rescind these powers that were granted in 2022.
Windsor was granted strong mayor powers in 2023. Recently, the powers were expanded to dozens of additional municipalities, including all of the Essex County municipalities, despite indication locally that they did not want these powers.
At the end of April, Windsor city council voted 8-3 in favour of sending a letter to Premier Doug Ford requesting that Windsor be removed from the list of municipalities designated under the Strong Mayor legislation.
These powers were put in place to offer tools to help heads of council cut red tape and speed up the delivery of key shared municipal-provincial priorities such as housing, transit, and infrastructure in their municipalities.
Gretzky said these powers don't make local cities stronger - they make them less democratic, and they silence the diverse voices of elected representatives.
'We have people in our communities, constituents and elected officials, that truly believe in democracy,' she said.
'They believe that city councillors are elected to represent constituents and bring their voice and their vote to the council table, and that majority rule should be respected.'
She said while these powers were put into place to help speed up priorities such as housing, those targets still aren't being met.
'The province is not even meeting its own housing targets, even though they are giving these powers to municipalities, and basically trying to point the finger at municipalities and saying, 'well it's your responsibility, we've given you strong mayor powers, now build housing'. We're not meeting housing targets; we're not building the appropriate housing that people need in our community,' Gretzky said.
She said the concern also lies with how future mayors will handle these powers.
'It really has opened the door for at some point a mayor to potentially overstep those powers and abuse those powers. This is not about good governance; this is about executive overreach. We need to be returning decision making back to the councillors and reinstating majority rule,' she added.
Gretzky said that the provincial government has decided to shut the legislature down for an extended period of time, meaning MPPs won't be sitting until late October.
She said this motion likely won't be debate on until early 2026 - but that the government can pause these powers if they decide to do so before they sit again.
Strong mayor powers came into effect for the 169 additional municipalities across Ontario on May 1.
- Written by Meagan Delaurier/AM800 News.
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