Ontario is proposing to expand its “strong mayor powers” to heads of council in 169 municipalities across the province — and Niagara-on-the-Lake is one of those places on the new list.
The proposal, announced in a media release Wednesday morning, will take effect on May 1.
Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa confirmed with The Lake Report that he received the official letter around 11 a.m. Wednesday morning.
“I was surprised, I didn’t have any word of it or anything,” Zalepa said in an interview.
Zalepa plans to have town chief administrative officer Bruce Zvaniga look over the proposal and piece together what it means before sending a memo to town council, he said.
“We’re going to review it and have a better idea soon,” Zalepa said.
This expansion of power will help deliver on the provincial government’s priorities, such as building more homes, transit and infrastructure, the release said.
The goal of the increased powers is to allow heads of council to support government priorities shared by the province and these municipalities.
Some of these duties include choosing to appoint the town’s CAO, hiring certain municipal department heads, creating committees of council, proposing the municipal budget, proposing and vetoing certain bylaws and more.
Currently, 47 municipalities have these enhanced powers, which were rolled out in 2022, first for Toronto and Ottawa.
Rob Flack, the minister of municipal affairs and housing, said heads of council are key partners in provincial efforts to build more homes and infrastructure across the province.
“By extending strong mayor powers to these additional municipalities, we are providing mayors every tool at our disposal to empower them to get homes and infrastructure built faster,” Flack said in the release.
“Mayors know their municipalities best, and we support them in taking bold actions for their communities.”
