How will Toronto and Ottawa's new 'strong mayor' powers work?

Premier Doug Ford surprised many Ontarians when he announced his intention to grant Toronto and Ottawa so-called "strong mayor" powers ahead of municipal elections on Oct. 24.

The new mayoral authorities those cities gained with the passage of the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act in September promise to shake up the way things are done in Ontario's two largest cities when the next council term begins on Nov. 15.

"This is a fundamental shift in the democratic process at the local government level," said John Mascarin, a municipal lawyer at Aird & Berlis in Toronto.

So, what exactly are these new powers? And how will they work?

What is a 'strong mayor'?

Currently, Ontario municipalities use a "weak mayor" system where most decision-making power rests with local councils.

Under this form of government, city administration reports to council and councillors make decisions by majority vote. The head of council — be it a mayor, reeve, warden or regional chair — has only one vote and little executive authority.

Simply put: the mayor's vote is worth no more than a councillor's.

"There would have to be a series of compromises and concessions. A mayor is essentially the consensus builder," said Mascarin. 

By contrast, in some major U.S. cities, including New York and Chicago, more power is concentrated in the mayor's office. 

Strong-city mayors generally oversee the day-to-day operations of the city government, can veto council decisions, appoint and remove high-level staff members, prepare the budget and enforce ordinances. Specific powers vary from city to city.

"'Strong mayors' can use their additional executive powers to work around council or override it without having to use the soft power of persuasion," wrote Zack Taylor, associate professor of political science and public administration at Western University in London, Ont., in an email.

What new powers do the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa have?

The mayors of Toronto and Ottawa will be able to unilaterally direct city staff to develop policy proposals for council to consider, draft and table their city's annual budget, create or re-organize municipal departments and choose the chairs of all committees and boards — including police and health.

They could also hire and fire the city manager and department heads. Certain appointments, such as the auditor general, police chief and medical officer of health, aren't covered by the new law. 

Most of the new mayoral powers currently reside with councils, their committees or with professional staff within municipal bureaucracies. 

But the most significant new authority is the ability to override some council decisions.

While the mayors will continue to have only one vote on regular council business, the legislation allows them to veto bylaws approved by council that they believe conflict with provincial priorities.

The list of priorities hasn't been specified yet, but examples that provincial officials have used include constructing 1.5 million homes in 10 years and building critical infrastructure.

"What the province is doing … is to provide centralized executive powers to the mayors of the two municipalities," said Mascarin.

Throughout his two terms, Toronto Mayor John Tory had no problem controlling the balance of power on council.

He was on the winning side of significant votes 97.99 per cent of the time during the 2018-2022 council term, according to a scorecard kept by Matt Elliott, a columnist and creator of the City Hall Watcher newsletter.

"Mayors are very rarely on the losing side of votes because they don't let 'losing' issues make it to the floor in the first place," wrote Taylor.

"The great exception, of course, was during Rob Ford's mayoralty, when he became isolated on council and council figured out how to govern without him."

With that said, Tory did suffer a rare policy loss in 2021 on the issue of legalizing rooming houses when he deferred a council vote rather than lose it because there wasn't majority support.

The new powers could be used to break such logjams if the mayor can make the case that doing so advances provincial priorities, said Karen Chapple, director of the school of cities at the University of Toronto.

"If [council] had denied it, then he could have overridden it with a veto," Chapple said.

Councillors could fight back and override a mayor's veto with a two-thirds majority vote.

Why are these powers necessary?

When he introduced the legislation in August, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark said the powers were being given to cities in most urgent need of new housing.

"Our government needs to support efficient local decision-making to speed up development timelines," Clark said at the time. 

"We're counting on municipalities to cut red tape and get housing built faster."

In a report earlier this year, a government-commissioned housing task force identified the municipal approval process as one of the major stumbling blocks to getting enough housing built to meet demand, arguing municipalities have largely failed to meet provincially-mandated timelines for making decisions on developments.

Tory, who is running for a third term, welcomed the new powers. He said they would help him speed up the development approval process at city hall if he is re-elected, adding he hopes he would use them rarely.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who is not seeking re-election, said his city doesn't need the powers, nor did he ask for them. In August, Ottawa's council voted to express its opposition to the legislation. 

How will the new powers work?

It's unclear how often these powers will be used or to what extent they will help the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa get more housing built.

For one thing, the Toronto mayor's role as chair of the executive committee already gives that person more influence than the average councillor. The committee's members are mostly hand-picked by the mayor and it shapes major policy items ahead of the full council.

As well, Toronto council already delegates some powers covered by the new law to the mayor, including appointing committee chairs and adding new items to the council agenda.

Taylor said the new powers fall short of the U.S.-style strong mayor system, particularly because veto power is tied to the provincial government's interests. 

"[That] dramatically limits the scope of how these powers can be used," he wrote. "Everything hinges on how broadly the province defines its priorities."

Sabine Matheson, a principal at consulting firm StrategyCorp, said the veto power could empower mayors to reverse council decisions to block housing projects that, in their view, should have been approved under provincial policy. Doing so would help avoid lengthy appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal that often go the developer's way anyway, Matheson said.

Control over the budget could also help the mayor ensure there's enough funding and staffing to support their city's housing goals, Matheson said. 

"It would be unrealistic to think that one change to the power of mayors could really, with a magic wand, change everything," Matheson said.

"But it can change some things, so I would just see this as being like one tool in a toolbox."

Chapple said the powers would come in most handy for a mayor who doesn't have the full support of council, for example, if a progressive mayoral candidate like Gil Penalosa is elected alongside a conservative-leaning council.

"An ideologically far right or ideologically far left politician could could get into disagreements with the council and then use these powers to to get their way," she said.

What about other Ontario municipalities?

The law allows the province to expand the new powers to other Ontario municipalities through regulation.

Ford has said he plans to do just that.

"In the coming months, we'll have more information on how these tools will be expanded to other municipalities so more municipal leaders like yourselves can help build Ontario," he said at a conference in August.  

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) has called on the province to consult the public as well as professional and municipal political organizations on the issue.

When the bill was being considered, the AMO raised concerns about the allowing mayors to control the hiring of senior municipal staff and re-structure the bureaucracy, which it said "are at odds with established good practices" of public sector governance.