Latest news with #municipal
National Post
3 days ago
- Business
- National Post
Ontario strong mayor powers has some councils concerned about local governance
A month after Ontario's government extended strong mayor powers to a swath of new municipalities, some leaders are promising never to use the measures — but a chorus of small-town councillors warn that local democracy is under threat. Article content Article content As of May 1, another 169 mayors in the province can now veto bylaws, pass new ones with just one-third of council in favour and hire or fire municipal department heads unilaterally. Article content Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack said last month that the province decided to more than triple the number of mayors who can access the powers in an effort to build housing faster and streamline local governance. Article content Article content The measures were first introduced in 2022 and initially only applied to the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario's two most populous cities. Article content Several municipalities are taking active steps to reject the powers now that they have been granted more widely. Article content Mark Hunter, one of 10 city councillors in Stratford, recently got unanimous support for his motion to reject the new powers. Hunter said it was symbolic and designed to show that municipal democracy shouldn't be 'subject to provincial whim.' Article content 'What it effectively does is get rid of majority rule in our council,' he said. Article content 'It's the expectation of the residents in our community that their representatives are able to fully represent them, and this change puts some level of diminishment on that.' Article content Article content Hunter said his fellow councillors can have strong disagreements at council, but lively discussions result in better decisions for the community. Anything that diminishes that discussion is worse for residents, he said. Article content Article content Councillors aren't concerned about Stratford's current mayor abusing his power, said Hunter, but they are worried about what could happen in the future. Article content 'It's another example of concentrating power in fewer hands. Unfortunately, in human history, that doesn't always work out so well,' he said. Article content David O'Neil, a councillor in Quinte West, said he is also concerned about strong mayor powers, adding they represent 'a real misdirection' by the province. Article content 'I think this decision is on par with the crazy idea of building a tunnel under the 401,' O'Neil said, referring to Premier Doug Ford's promise to add a tunnel under the major Ontario highway. Article content He added he is skeptical that strong mayor powers would lead to new housing being built in his community, and thinks the province should waive development fees if it wants to see more housing built.
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Ontario councillors push back as strong mayor powers reach small towns
A month after Ontario's government extended strong mayor powers to a swath of new municipalities, some leaders are promising never to use the measures — but a chorus of small-town councillors warn that local democracy is under threat. As of May 1, another 169 mayors in the province can now veto bylaws, pass new ones with just one-third of council in favour and hire or fire municipal department heads unilaterally. Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack said last month that the province decided to more than triple the number of mayors who can access the powers in an effort to build housing faster and streamline local governance. The measures were first introduced in 2022 and initially only applied to the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario's two most populous cities. Several municipalities are taking active steps to reject the powers now that they have been granted more widely. Mark Hunter, one of 10 city councillors in Stratford, recently got unanimous support for his motion to reject the new powers. Hunter said it was symbolic and designed to show that municipal democracy shouldn't be "subject to provincial whim." "What it effectively does is get rid of majority rule in our council," he said. "It's the expectation of the residents in our community that their representatives are able to fully represent them and this change puts some level of diminishment on that." Hunter said his fellow councillors can have strong disagreements at council, but lively discussions result in better decisions for the community. Anything that diminishes that discussion is worse for residents, he said. Councillors aren't concerned about Stratford's current mayor abusing his power, said Hunter, but they are worried about what could happen in the future. "It's another example of concentrating power in fewer hands. Unfortunately in human history, that doesn't always work out so well," he said. Worries about democratic processes David O'Neil, a councillor in Quinte West, said he is also concerned about strong mayor powers, adding they represent "a real misdirection" by the province. "I think this decision is on par with the crazy idea of building a tunnel under the 401," O'Neil said, referring to Premier Doug Ford's promise to add a tunnel under the major Ontario highway. He added he is skeptical that strong mayor powers would lead to new housing being built in his community, and thinks the province should waive development fees if it wants to see more housing built. Zack Card, another councillor for Quinte West, said he believes the expansion of the strong mayor powers will "erode the democratic traditions of municipal councils in Ontario." "I believe effective councils work collaboratively and with an understanding that all voices carry equal weight. Tipping that balance could potentially hinder governance and make solving issues within our communities more difficult," Card wrote in an email. Neither O'Neil nor Card would speak to the recent dismissal of the municipality's chief administration officer, which was described on the municipality's website as a "mayoral decision" pursuant to the legislation, made on the first day the powers were available. Quinte West Mayor Jim Harrison said in an email to The Canadian Press that "the decision was made in close collaboration and consensus with council, utilizing strong mayor powers to move forward." Less than a week after the decision, he told a council meeting that he wasn't planning to make use of the strong mayor powers. O'Neil suggested his concern is more future-oriented: it's unclear what could a different sort of mayor do with these powers five, 10 or 20 years down the road. 'It's changed the dynamic' for non-partisan staff David Arbuckle, executive director of the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario, said unilateral power threatens a local government's administrative authority and staffers' ability to give non-partisan, evidence-based advice. "It's changed the dynamic where (a city staffer) now has to be mindful of the fact that they could be hired or fired by the mayor at any point in time," Arbuckle said in a recent interview. "The advice they're bringing forward may not be as neutral as possible because ultimately they are now responding to one individual." Corey Engelsdorfer, a councillor from Prince Edward County, said he's worried the powers will exacerbate existing divisions on his council and, should they be used, could "sideline" constituents even as the community experiences a boom in development. The traditional model of majority rule is already divisive, Engelsdorfer said — especially when it comes to housing decisions — so decisions being made with even less support could lead to even more public cynicism. "The way we build homes is by working together as a council and not by one person or a third of council pushing through what they want to push through," he said. "I always hear Premier Ford say that these changes cut red tape, but democracy to me is not red tape. I don't think it's something that needs to be in place at all." Mayor Steve Ferguson said in an interview that he was working to defer several of the strong mayor powers, including personnel decisions, back to council. The council also unanimously passed a resolution asking the province to rescind strong mayor legislation, Engelsdorfer said. 'Underwhelming' uptake of new powers Despite the concerns, Matti Siemiatycki, director of the University of Toronto's Infrastructure Institute and a professor of geography and planning, said the uptake of the powers has been "fairly underwhelming." Before last month, there were only 46 so-called strong mayors in Ontario. Only a few made use of their powers. High-profile examples include Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath advancing affordable housing development on two municipal parking lots in April 2024, and Mississauga's former mayor Bonnie Crombie passing bylaws to build fourplexes in October 2023. But Siemiatycki said he fears there's greater risk for strong mayor powers to go unchecked in smaller municipalities, where there is less oversight and, often, less journalistic scrutiny. "We've seen an erosion and a decline of the local presses across Canada, and it's no more visible than in small communities," he said. "If you're concentrating powers, what's really needed is external oversight bodies. And the media is one of those, so smaller communities might struggle to have that accountability and people being aware of what's happening." Siemiatycki said while he sympathizes with the province's desire to tackle a housing and infrastructure crisis, he agrees with the councillors who have raised concerns. "It doesn't necessarily mean you'll go further just because you're aiming to go faster," he said. "The thing that's more sustainable over the long term is acceleration through processes that have very clear accountabilities and timelines to them."
CTV News
5 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
New law forces B.C. legislator to quit her ‘part-time' job as municipal councillor
Langley-Walnut Grove Conservative MLA Misty Van Popta attends a campaign stop with Conservative Leader John Rustad, not seen, in Vancouver, on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press) VICTORIA — A B.C. Conservative legislator has lost what she called her 'part-time' job as a councillor after a new law banning MLAs from also serving as municipal representatives came into effect. Misty Van Popta represents Langley-Walnut Grove in the provincial legislature, but lost her job as a municipal councillor in the Township of Langley in the Fraser Valley on Thursday when the Eligibility to Hold Public Office Act came into effect and forced her to resign. 'I'm obviously disappointed, but not shocked,' she said after the passage of the law. 'When you see that bill being presented, and you know that the government has the balance of power, you know it is going to pass.' Van Popta was elected as councillor in 2022, but didn't step down after being elected to the legislature last year, drawing criticism from the provincial NDP. The NDP's Darlene Rotchford, who tabled the new law as a private member's bill, said legislators needed to give '110 per cent' to their jobs, and can't do that if they are trying to hold down another. Van Popta – whose photograph no longer appears on the township's website – said her decision to hold two elected offices at the same time had precedent and was always meant to be a 'temporary solution.' Van Popta added that she was planning to resign as councillor in 2026, the year of the next municipal elections, to save her municipality the cost of a byelection. The last general municipal election in the Township of Langley cost about $500,000. Van Popta's Conservative colleague Heather Maahs quit her Chilliwack school board position after becoming an MLA last year. The school board byelection in March cost an estimated $100,000. Van Popta said she felt that the NDP singled her out, and she was able to prove she could do both jobs. 'There is just no evidence to substantiate the fact that I haven't been working 100 per cent as an MLA,' she said. She said that being a municipal councillor in her community with a population of about 162,000 was a 'part-time job.' Van Popta said being a councillor with the township is not the 'same thing as being a municipal councillor in the City of Vancouver' or other large community. 'I have demonstrated over the last seven months that it was doable,' she said of her two jobs. Rotchford said the bill was not focused on anyone in particular, but meant to close a loophole. 'This is something that shouldn't be allowed,' Rotchford said in the legislature on Wednesday. 'We are ensuring that all (MLAs) are giving 110 per cent in closing that loophole, when you are an MLA in the province of British Columbia, similar to other provinces across the country.' There is no rule preventing federal members of Parliament from serving as councillors. Richmond Coun. Chak Au was elected as an MP representing Richmond Centre-Marpole in April. This report by Wolfgang Depner of The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2025.
CBC
27-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Zampino grilled over 'mystery' faxes and hard drive at municipal corruption trial
Frank Zampino, the former head of Montreal's executive committee, was grilled Tuesday by a Crown prosecutor about faxes addressed to him that he says he never saw, and a hard drive seized from his house by police that he says was not his. Zampino — second-in-command to former city mayor Gérald Tremblay from 2001 to 2008 — continued testifying at his trial on charges of fraud, conspiracy and breach of trust in connection with an alleged municipal bid-rigging scandal. Several times Judge Silvie Kovacevich admonished Crown prosecutor Nicolas Ammerlaan to stop interrupting Zampino's answers as he tried to explain the mysterious faxes and hard drive. "What was seized at my house was a hard drive that I had never seen. It's equipment I never purchased," Zampino testified. Ammerlaan asked, "you're saying the black hard drive that was on a shelf in your home, you'd never seen that? Are you saying the police planted that?" Zampino replied, "no, that's not what I'm saying. But it was not a hard drive I purchased. I have no idea where that hard drive came from." "It was not a piece of equipment that I had ever seen in my home," he said. Zampino conceded that he was generally familiar with most of the material investigators eventually discovered on the hard drive, but he offered no other explanation as to how the drive might have ended up in his home office. Faxes 'remain a mystery' In that same office was a fax machine. Last week, Zampino testified about several faxes sent to that fax number and to the number of a fax machine in his office — faxes he claims he never saw. The faxes were sent by Bernard Trépanier, the former head of financing for Zampino's party, Union Montreal. The prosecution alleges Zampino, with Trépanier's help, put in place a system allowing 13 engineering firms to share 34 public contracts with a total value of $160 million between 2004 and 2009. In return, the engineering firms would allegedly make a donation of three per cent of the value of each contract to Union Montreal, as well as an initial donation — sort of like an entry fee to participate in the scheme — ranging from $50,000 to $200,000. Trépanier died of cancer in 2018. The faxes Zampino was asked about were all by Trépanier to Zampino's attention, sometimes with a note saying "as discussed" or "following our meeting." They generally included the name of an engineering firm identified as having won a municipal contract, the amount of the contract and the names of firms that offered losing bids. Zampino testified Friday he had never seen any of these faxes. Ammerlaan asked him Tuesday how that was possible. "To this very day it still remains a mystery to me. I can't explain where those faxes came from and why I've never seen them," Zampino replied. He continued to vehemently deny any knowledge of a municipal bid-rigging scheme. "I never participated in any arrangement where there's an exchange of political donations for contracts with whomever," Zampino said. "I never received, I never requested, I never facilitated any amount of monies in exchange for contracts," he said. Key witness died during first trial Four other people are also facing charges: former director of public works for the city, Robert Marcil, and the heads of three engineering firms, Kazimierz Olechnowicz, Bernard Poulin and Normand Brousseau. This is the second trial for Zampino and his co-accused after he was arrested in 2017. The judge in the first trial ordered a stay of proceedings after determining that wiretap evidence gathered by investigators — including recordings of Zampino and his co-accused talking with their lawyers — was unconstitutional. That decision was appealed to the Quebec Court of Appeal, which concluded that even though the wiretap evidence was indeed unconstitutional, it was not enough to justify a stay of proceedings and that a new trial should be held without using the wiretap evidence. That decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which last year refused to hear the case, leading to this new trial which began in February. Zampino testified Tuesday that he had hoped Trépanier might be able to shed light on the mysterious faxes during the first trial. He said he knew Trépanier was in fragile health at the time, and that his legal team asked the Crown to skip a preliminary hearing in the case so that Trépanier's testimony might occur before his health worsened. But it was too late. The Crown refused to wave the preliminary hearing and Trépanier died while the first trial was still underway, before he could testify.
CBC
21-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Richmond, B.C., councillor 'dumbfounded' by alleged misuse of city hall gift card program
Social Sharing A city councillor in Richmond, B.C., is calling for a more fulsome audit of city finances amid a police investigation into alleged misuse of a gift card program. In a statement on May 15, the City of Richmond said it purchased approximately $446,000 worth of gift cards from 2022 to 2024 as part of an employee recognition program — but found in a recent review that around $295,000 of them were unaccounted for. Richmond RCMP said their serious crimes section has opened an investigation into the gift card case, which was first reported by Global News. The city said "an individual's employment with the City has concluded" following a personnel investigation. It also said it no longer uses gift cards and would be conducting a forensic audit of the past three years of finances. Richmond Coun. Kash Heed introduced a motion Tuesday to expand the audit to include the past decade, and have the findings presented to council afterwards. The motion was approved unanimously. He also co-signed an open letter to B.C. Premier David Eby that says the province needs to either reinstate a specific office to oversee municipal spending or expand the auditor general's mandate to cover it. Heed spoke with CBC's On The Coast host Gloria Macarenko on Tuesday afternoon. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. So what do we know about these gift cards? What we don't know is the troubling aspect of this — how we could let almost $300,000 worth of unaccounted transactions take place in the City of Richmond.... So that is very troubling. And we just know this from three years of data. The gift card program has been in existence for over a decade. As a result of that, I think we have to dig further into this particular problem to identify where this went off the rails, why there is such a discrepancy [in] the accounted-for and the unaccounted amount. Why does the city hold this much money in gift cards? I'm dumbfounded. I've never experienced this in [my] career. When I talk to other councillors throughout the Lower Mainland, they don't have a particular program like this. We have to remember gift cards are actually treated as monetary cash.... So when we have reconciliation, for example, for cash items that are purchased within local government, that is all looked after and it's all caught by the auditors to make sure there's integrity behind it. These cards were used as part of an employee recognition program. Do you think this is the most appropriate way to offer recognition? Absolutely not. It's proven itself that it's not the appropriate way. We cannot control it. We can't even account for it. So this is something that has been halted here in Richmond, but the reason why this went off the rails and the reason why we're unable to reconcile it has to be looked at, has to be explored. I'm not sure … whether this is a deficiency in our oversight or that there is actual fraudulent activity taking place, and until we do the level of forensic audit that's required to determine what went wrong, we will never know. We do annual audits outsourced by a particular company, they were unable to pick up on this. We have internal auditors that work within the City of Richmond, they were unable to pick up on this. We've got to delve into this. What do you make of the decision to stick with KPMG for the forensic audit since they also audited the city's financial statements? I think, based on whether there's a clear conflict or the possibility or the perception of a conflict, they should have outsourced it to another company that has the ability to do these types of forensic audits. KPMG is the auditor, they've been the financial auditor for the City of Richmond for decades now. And now we're bringing that same company in to do the forensic audit. It is very telling. According to media reports, one employee in Richmond has already been fired. What more do you think needs to be done for accountability? My fear is, do we have a deeper problem within our financial accounting of the taxpayer dollar in Richmond? And I think if we can truly understand what occurred here, maybe we can start looking into other areas to see and ensure the right standard operating procedures and auditing systems are in place.
