Sarnia needs to know about strong mayor powers’ impact: councilor

Sarnia needs more information about what recently accepted strong mayor powers will mean for the city, says one city councilor.

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“We have to get our staff to make all the clarifications because it affects budgeting, it affects all kinds of votes on all kinds of things,” Coun. Terry Burrell says of the powers Mayor Mike Bradley accepted in Septemberas part of a pledge to build 1,000 new homes by 2031 in exchange for provincial funding.

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Burrell brought a notice of motion to council Oct. 16 — though the meeting was abruptly adjourned before it reached the floor — seeking a staff report on how strong mayor powers in Sarnia will affect council votes and other city business.

“There’s just too much information that’s not available,” he said.

Bradley Sept. 11 confirmed in a letter to Housing Minister Paul Calandra he’d committed to the housing target — essentially 140 homes a year — that officials said Sarnia likely can achieve with little adjustment.

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Bradley said he’s accepting the powers — including the ability to hire the city’s chief administrator without council involvement, proposing the city budget, and vetoing council decisions that could interfere with provincial housing priorities — to get access to a share of the $1.2-billion Building Faster Fund the province created for municipalities that meet or beat housing targets.

“That was the main reason,” he said.

The money helps offset development charge cuts under the More Homes Built Faster Act, Bradley said.

He said he welcomes Burrell’s motion and downplayed the prospect of using the new powers he said kick in at month’s end.

“I’m not interested in this. . . appointing the city manager and things like that,” he said, adding it’s important for all of council to have ownership in that hiring process. “Otherwise it’ll just become ‘it’s the mayor’s CAO.’”

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Discussions are happening with city staff about how to deal with the budget using the new powers, he said. “If I have to take the staff budget, endorse it and send it to council, or if I can defer that power to staff — which is the way it should be.”

Bradley said he expects more municipalities will use the powers over time, he said, just as provinces have been using the Charter’s notwithstanding clause more in recent years.

“They have the power to do it and that’s what they’re doing,” he said. “But right now it’s a wait and see.”

“You can have powers, but you choose whether to use them or not,” he added, noting he’s never used his Municipal Act power to expel anyone from council chambers.

Coun. Brian White said it’s “fair enough” to accept strong mayor powers to get access to provincial Building Faster funding.

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“But it’s unfortunate that the province has essentially coerced cities into receiving money by changing the effectiveness of the democracy as we’ve known it for over 100 years,” he said.

Powers also enable mayors to pass motions related to provincial priorities with support of only one-third of council.

“My concerns lie in the fact that any mayor with strong mayor powers in any community could go into an election with a minority slate of candidates, receive a minority, effectively, in the election, and have a significant amount of power in determining not only budgets, but who is hired. . . to be CAO, and potentially pushing towards favoritism of developers,” White said.

That could lead to “micro versions” of Ontario’s Greenbelt land-swap scandal playing out at the municipal level, he said.

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