Stouffville receives strong mayor powers after 6,500 home pledge

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 6, 2023

Stouffville is now a municipality with strong mayor’s powers.

On August 21, the Province revealed that Stouffville, along with 20 other municipalities in Ontario, would be granted "strong mayor powers." These powers came into effect Oct. 31. The change was introduced with the focus and pledge to boost housing availability by 1.5 million new homes by 2031.

Under the recently revised Municipal Act, mayors and other council leaders now possess the authority to propose the municipality’s budget and hold the capacity to veto bylaws if they are perceived as potential obstacles to provincial housing objectives.

Under "strong mayor powers," the Mayor has the ability to issue official orders known as mayoral decisions and directives. These decisions and directives allow the mayor to set policies and make decisions that affect various aspects of municipal governance. When a directive is given, the Mayor must provide a written record of it to the Clerk and chief administrative officer by the next business day as well as a written record to each Member of Council. All mayoral decisions and directives will be made available to the public at townofws.ca/mayoral-decisions.

During the October 18 Council meeting, Mayor Iain Lovatt declared he would be delegating several powers back to Council and staff; however, there is one critical aspect of "strong mayor powers" that cannot be delegated, the proposal of the Town’s annual budget. Under the new framework, the Mayor must direct staff to create the budget on their behalf, allowing for Council feedback and after a series of reviews, the Mayor will finalize the operating and capital budgets for the following year.

To fulfil the requirements for obtaining "strong mayor powers," Stouffville committed to the Province's Housing Pledge. The Town was assigned a housing target of 6,500 new residential dwellings to be constructed by 2031, a pledge adopted by council on September 13.

While the number looks daunting, the town planning department said they already have 10,900 units in the planning approval pipeline. “We are growing folks. There is just no ifs ands or buts about it,” Lovatt said at the September meeting.