Welland Mayor Frank Campion has raised concerns with a particular element of the provincial government’s municipal governance reform bill, known as Bill 9.
One element of Bill 9, an effort by the Ford government to strengthen accountability at the municipal level, is to have municipal councils vote on the removal of a sitting councillor from office, if recommended by a municipal integrity commissioner and supported by a report from Ontario’s integrity commissioner.
The vote would have to be unanimous, meaning all of a councillor’s peers would have to vote in favour of his or her removal from office.
It is that point that has raised the concern of Campion.
In a letter to the provincial government, Campion outlined his concerns.
“I must raise a significant concern with the proposed mechanism requiring a unanimous vote of all members of council to remove a councillor from their seat,” wrote Campion. “While the intent may be to empower councils to self-govern, in practice this approach creates a substantial barrier to achieving an outcome when a councillor’s conduct has reached a critical threshold.”
“A single dissenting vote would be sufficient to block action, leaving the matter unresolved and potentially emboldening the councillor in question.”
Campion notes that the issue is not a hypothetical one.
Campion’s suggested solution is to instead have the matter referred to “an independent, third-party, quasi-judicial body that can weigh the facts and make a determination in a fair, impartial, and consistent manner.”
Beyond Campion’s concerns about council having to vote unanimously on the removal of a sitting councillor, the Welland mayor seemed to be broadly supportive of the provincial government’s municipal governance reform efforts.
He noted specifically that the introduction of “measures such as consistent Codes of Conduct across municipalities is both timely and necessary,” helping to “strengthen accountability and ensure the expectations for elected officials are clear and enforceable across Ontario.”
Bill 9 was introduced by Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs, Rob Flack, in May and is currently being reviewed by a standing committee after having passed second reading shortly thereafter. While municipalities currently create their own codes of conduct, Bill 9 would see a code of conduct created for all municipalities province wide.
Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center. He previously served as the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
