By Staff
October 17th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Published in the Hamilton Spectator:
With the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing’s Oct. 15 deadline just days away, Haldimand council decided it will not condone a course of action that will lead to strong-mayor powers in the county.
That decision may have put the county in the minority in Ontario.
The province gave about 50 municipalities — including Haldimand — targets for new housing units over the next nine years. These units can range from a detached home to individual apartments.
Municipalities that agree to the housing targets can start accessing infrastructure funding from the province’s $1.2-billion Building Faster Fund after they hit 80 per cent of their annual target; more units mean more money. The funding has been guaranteed for three years.
Agreeing to the housing targets also requires the municipality to accept strong-mayor powers, which enable the mayor to hire and fire key senior staff, table a budget and override council decisions on matters of provincial priority — such as housing.
“I can’t even imagine what the workplace must be around those municipalities that have the strong-mayor powers; they’ve got to be walking around on eggshells the whole time,” Coun. Dan Lawrence said in council chambers on Oct. 10.
Later in the day, when discussing the matter again, he said, “This thing is just rotten to the core.”
At the Sept. 25 council meeting, Coun. Rob Shirton’s motion that council defer its decision to Oct. 10 so staff could reach out to other municipalities to find out if they were also opposed to the idea of strong-mayor powers was passed.
Editors note:
Burlington City Council didn’t have this kind of debate
Along with “strong Mayor powers” comes, “cadere in gladium”.
Not surprising from Burlington. What’s the use of having councillors if its going to be a one person show.
Bravo mayor of Haldimand! I think it is a terrible idea. The mayor should be cooperating with councillors and bringing people together not throwing their weight around. Imagine if Rob Ford had been mayor under those circumstances.
Of course they did not have such a debate that would go against their mode of operation that is totally opposite to what the Municipal Act, Procedural By-laws of old and now Corporate Policies (many of which are the responsibility of the Clerk are well past their review date) call for in terms of engagement, accountability and trasparency. Haldimand called it right, shame on Burlington City Council for not demanding such a debate and shame on Burlington City Council and Clerk for allowing items to stay on a consent agenda and be without debate when there is a registered delegation or delegations which is contrary to the Procedural By-law approved by this Council.
Add to this the over a year of missing Council and Committee agenda, minutes and videos from the City Calendar; something that we have been addressing with the Clerk since prior to the last election when they suddenly disappeared from view and has been completely ignored. There is no denying that we now have a council and committee that is administered with a level of incompetence never experienced before we had a Mayor who denied she wanted strong powers and agreed with us that Burlington, instead, needed a strong council to properly decision make around our needs. However, the truth is carved in stone, she grabbed them at the earliest opportunity presented.