The announcement by Doug Ford’s Conservatives of the expansion of “strong mayor powers” to an additional 169 municipalities is further undermining the fundamentals of democracy in our communities and enables personal political agendas to “trump” democratic process.
“This expansion is disguised as a way to speed up housing and infrastructure projects, but make no mistake, this is the Conservatives and Doug Ford’s way of ensuring that mayors can ram through his political agenda without proper scrutiny or accountability,” said CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn. “This expansion is a further slap in the face to workers and to all voters, whose voices will all be diminished as a result.”
“Strong mayor powers” were initially introduced by the Ford Conservatives in 2022, allowing mayors to bypass council approval processes to support provincial priorities, such as housing development and infrastructure. These powers fundamentally reduce democracy overall and democratic oversight in a way never before seen, and they can negatively impact workers, by diminishing the voices of workers through their union, job security, service delivery, labour relations, and in a host of other ways.
“Municipal workers have already seen the impact of these “strong mayor powers,” that have sidelined workers’ voices and concentrated decision-making in the hands of mayors,” said Krista Laing, chair of CUPE Ontario’s Municipal Workers Committee. “This decision will only continue to undermine democracy and sets up the ability of mayors to threaten labour relations and the negotiating power of municipal workers in Ontario. We continue to call on the Doug Ford Government to repeal these “strong mayor powers,” and return municipal democracy back to the people.”