Is the cost to uphold Newmarket's integrity worth the tax dollars?

'Having an integrity commissioner is like having car insurance'

Yorkregion.com
September 27, 2018
Teresa Latchford

New provincial legislation surrounding integrity commissioners will have little impact on the Town of Newmarket.

The province has mandated all Ontario municipalities, including Newmarket, have a council code of conduct and an integrity commissioner to review potential violations in place by March 1, 2019. Newmarket already has a commissioner and conduct code.

The town signed a five-year contract with integrity commissioner Robert Swayze in 2015 agreeing to a pay-per-use fee without paying a retainer fee. The council code of conduct was enacted in 2007 and was updated in 2016.

The town is already compliant with the incoming legislation and hasn't historically had an abundance of conduct issues, so some people might question whether an integrity commissioner is worth the cost to taxpayers.

“(Having an integrity commissioner) is like having car insurance, if something happens you are glad it’s there,” Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen said. “We have had experiences in the past and until things go south you can’t see the value in having or paying for it.”

This year, the town has received no integrity related complaints so there was no cost associated. Last year, while there weren’t any complaints, the town did pay out $3,504 to cover the cost of staff and council receiving advice from the integrity commissioner, Newmarket Town Clerk Lisa Lyons confirmed.

“For the past four years we have had an excellent council who are professional and work well together,” Ward 2 Coun. Dave Kerwin said. “This is the kind of council that needs no monitoring so no need for an integrity commissioner.”

However, he can see the desire to have a safety net to protect the town and taxpayers against politicians who run for office for the “wrong reasons”.

“Look at what has happened in Vaughan, Markham and Stouffville as well as East Gwillimbury in the past,” he said alluding to misconduct of council members. “The cost of an integrity commissioner and to implement a code of conduct is minimal to protect the citizens from bad politicians.”

From Jan. 1, 2016 to March 31, 2018, the Ontario Ombudsman office, an independent organization which reviews or investigates complaints against the province’s 144 municipalities, confirms it has received a total of eight complaints about the Town of Newmarket. All of these complaints were resolved without undertaking a formal investigation.

“We don’t give out information about the substance of individual complaints, or complaints in a particular municipality,” Ombudsman spokesperson Linda Williamson said when asked what the nature of the complaints were. “Most are resolved by referring complaints to the right officials at the local level.”

Modernizing Ontario’s Municipal Legislation Act, also known as Bill 68, was passed by the previous Liberal government in 2017, leaving it up to municipalities to decide whether or not to appoint their own full-time integrity commissioner, share the service with other municipalities, or retain one on a fee-for-use basis.

During the bill’s third reading in the legislature, the then Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Bill Mauro stated the changes would do a number of things to strengthen Ontario communities right across the province.

“They would improve access to justice for both the public and municipal councillors by allowing integrity commissioners to investigate conflict-of-interest issues if a complaint was brought to them,” he said to the speaker of the house. “They ensure municipalities have a code of conduct for members of municipal councils and certain local boards.”

York University Professor Dennis Pilon doubts forcing all of Ontario’s 444 municipalities to have an integrity commissioner and council code of conduct will have the desired effect policy-makers are hoping for.

“These kinds of approaches don’t always work,” he said. “Often there is an underlying political problem that is at the root of the issue. There has to be a political will for these changes to work.”

The most prominent issue is council members have final say on what goes into the code of conduct and any recommendations made by the integrity commissioner, he added.

For example, if there isn’t a consensus on a point some councillors believe should be in the code of conduct, it won’t be included and the code of conduct can be changed upon council’s desire.

“There was an integrity commissioner in British Columbia who was too good at his job and was digging up all kinds of information and the council pulled funding for his office,” Pilon said. “It’s not an ideal model.”

It would have greater impact if the integrity commissioners were able to work independently of the municipalities and not have the fear of retaliation or job security impact investigations, he added. They should also have the ability to enforce recommendations rather than wait on council’s approval or rejection of their recommendations once an investigation is complete.

“This would strengthen the role of an integrity commissioner but many people still believe the voter is the ultimate judge,” he said. “But four years can feel like an eternity to vote a rogue councillor out of office.”