By Pepper Parr
February 17th, 2026
BURLINGTON. ON
OPINION
Why did Mayor Meed Ward use her Strong Mayor Powers?
She said she used her powers simply due to timing – it gave staff two full days to work on the report, and the contents of the report were made clear by her direction.
Mayor Meed Ward in her City Hall office.
“All I have asked for is information to be given to us,” she told BurlingtonToday. She said it was done in the interest of time because council is making a vote on Tuesday. “We want the best information available.”
“I’m hoping the information that staff provides will help council make the appropriate decision and that the information provides a realistic picture of what this might mean for the community,” she said.
The public would have liked the best information as well.
Council can debate the matter but defer a decision until the public has had a chance to read the material that media have made available.
The Family Day weekend kept people outdoors – the last thing they wanted to do was read council agendas and reports.
The poor public engagement is due to the way council has treated the taxpayers; they’ve given up
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“ Why did the mayor use her strong mayor’s powers”
Because she could.
Since 2023, Burlington’s budget has operated under strong mayor powers. Under Part VI.1 of the Municipal Act, the mayor prepares and proposes the budget and holds veto authority over council amendments, subject only to a two-thirds override. That is a fundamental shift from the traditional council-driven model.
These powers were expressly introduced to accelerate housing – and that includes the infrastructure required to support it. Water, wastewater, roads, transit, servicing capacity, the right staffing for planning approvals – all of these are foundational to building homes faster. The legislation was designed to allow mayors to align budgets and administrative structures with those provincial housing priorities without delay.
Given that authority, an obvious question arises: has Burlington’s budget meaningfully reflected that mandate? Were infrastructure investments reprioritized to unlock housing supply? Were capital plans accelerated? Were resources shifted to planning and approvals to remove bottlenecks?
If urgency is now being cited in advance of a vote, it is reasonable to ask why that urgency was not embedded earlier in the budget proposal itself. Strong mayor powers centralize both authority and accountability. If the goal is to build homes faster through infrastructure investment, the mayor has had the statutory tools since 2023 to structure the budget accordingly.
The public deserves clarity on whether those tools were fully used — and if not, why the rush now.