Coun. Sandra O’Connor plans to argue against Niagara-on-the-Lake’s use of the newly announced “strong mayor powers” granted by the provincial government to a large swath of municipalities in Ontario.
During Tuesday night’s committee of the whole meeting, O’Connor announced a notice of motion for town council to petition the province to rescind the powers granted to NOTL.
The motion will be discussed at length during the next council meeting on April 29.
The province announced last week that 169 municipalities would be granted strong mayor powers as of May 1, with NOTL included.
O’Connor told The Lake Report that strong powers allocated to Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa would jeopardize equal representation among councillors.
“Once the power is given to one of those (councillors), this being the lord mayor, who can make decisions unilaterally on certain things, then we no longer have the power the people have given us to represent them,” O’Connor said.
Other councillors have raised concerns in conversation regarding the potential limit on “housing dollars” (financial assistance programs that improve housing affordability), she said.
She noted this information will come to council, but with new council procedures, O’Connor had to get the notice of motion in front of councillors long before the next meeting.
Her decision to ring forth the motion is not about individuals or who is in power, O’Connor said.
“It’s about fair representation.”
In an interview, Zalepa said he found the motion to be “somewhat premature.”
“I would hope that council members would want to actually review the information before debating and proposing motions,” he said.
Zalepa contacted members of council to let them know of the announcement from the province, but council did not have all of the details yet because the regulation hadn’t been approved, he said.
As of Wednesday, Zalepa said it is his understanding that the regulation is being published today.
“I’ve asked the CAO to review that in detail and provide guidance and input to council so they understand ‘what does this actually mean,’” Zalepa said.
“We don’t know exactly what this looks like,” he said.
Coun. Maria Mavridis seconded O’Connor’s notice of motion and agrees that she and council need more information.
“We’re getting told one thing from someone and then something totally different from another person,” she said.
Mavridis wants to better understand what strong mayor powers would do, not only for the present council but for the future, she said.
There has been no formal discussion on the strong mayor powers.
Mavridis said councillors received an email from chief administrator Bruce Zvaniga after Tuesday’s meeting, including an article by lawyer John Mascarin regarding the legislation.
