Doug Ford’s strong-mayor powers will ‘marginalize’ city councillors but help build more housing, committee told

Thestar.com
Aug. 30, 2022

Premier Doug Ford’s “strong-mayor” powers for Toronto and Ottawa will weaken local democracy by limiting the influence and authority of city council, a legislative committee has been told.

But the all-party panel studying the legislation also heard the Progressive Conservative law would help the government meet its goal of building 1.5 million homes in Ontario over the next decade.

Myer Siemiatycki -- a professor emeritus of politics at Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly known as Ryerson University -- warned the bill would “marginalize the input and the voice of city councillors.”

“By doing that, who it’s really harming are local residents,” Siemiatycki, who objected to the idea that the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa would be able to override council votes on issues considered a “provincial priority.”

“Currently, the councillors have a single vote on all municipal issues -- they also collectively appoint the senior staff of the city. It is currently not a unilateral decision of the head of council, the mayor,” the professor said.

“So if we go down the path of this legislation, ward councillors will effectively be sidelined in the major decisions that city government is making. The senior staff will see their careers as totally dependent on approval from the mayor,” he said.

“It turns our mayors from local chief magistrates into provincial enforcement officers at city hall.”

Proponents of the legislation argued it would expedite housing construction.

Alex Piccini, the Ontario Home Builders’ Association’s manager of government relations, insisted the bill would make “more homes more affordable by speeding up approval timelines and eliminating red tape.”

As well, it would see the freeing up of “more lands available to build on, adding certainty to the cost of new housing, laying the groundwork for future growth and taking the politics out of planning,” said Piccini.

“We need to dramatically accelerate the delivery of housing supply if we’re going to meet that goal of 1.5 million homes over the next decade,” he said.

“Bold changes, not half measures, are what’s drastically needed.”

David Wilkes, president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), noted that it will not be easy to meet the target of making that many homes.

“To put this in perspective ... 2021 was the best year for housing starts in the last 34 years with just over 100,000 starts,” said Wilkes.

“So to build the 1.5 million homes that Ontario needs in the next decade will require us to increase over 2021 by over 50 per cent or 50,000 more housing starts on an annual basis and maintain that pace for a decade” he said.

“Meeting that need will require bold and decisive action across multiple fronts,” he said.

“We need to dramatically speed approvals, streamline pre-planning, remove barriers to land development to specifically increase housing starts over current levels to help support these ambitious targets.”

But NDP MPP Jessica Bell said a drawback to the Tory legislation is the presumption “that the ability for a city to build homes more quickly really depends upon the personality and the values of the mayor at hand.”

“I wonder why the government doesn’t focus more on what it can do provincially to speed up housing construction for homes for Ontarians and future Ontarians,” said Bell (University-Rosedale).

Last week, Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark told the committee that his bill would fast-track construction of duplexes, triplexes, laneway suites and other projects stalled by exclusionary zoning.

“We need housing of all types. We need family-size condos, we need purpose-built rentals, we need homes that have different price ranges for different people,” Clark said Thursday.

Exclusionary zoning rules are often used by so-called “not-in-my-backyard” opponents -- NIMBYs -- to prevent multi-unit homes from being built in traditionally single-family neighbourhoods.

Under the legislation, the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa would have sweeping new authority over municipal budgets and the hiring and firing of senior city staff.

Only a two-thirds vote of council could overrule a “strong mayor” on major matters.

Ford has said those powers would eventually be granted to other large cities, such as Mississauga, Brampton and Hamilton.