Sadly, the Better Regional Governance Act was introduced on April 2, not April 1. Otherwise, it might have just been a bad April Fool’s joke. Instead, it is yet another attack on democracy in Ontario.

Bit by bit, Doug Ford has been chipping away at the independence of elected municipal officials since he was first elected premier. It started in 2018 when he arbitrarily cut the number of wards in Toronto in the middle of an election campaign.

In 2022, we had the Strong Mayors Act. That started slowly with only a handful of municipalities having mayors with the power, among other things, to hire and fire certain senior staff at will, direct staff, set budgets, veto council resolutions, and approve planning applications with the support of only one-third of council, all in the name of increasing housing starts.

Meanwhile, housing starts have declined. And what do most of the strong-mayor powers have to do with that anyway? They have more to do with furthering a provincial agenda that may, or may not, address the needs of our towns and cities. They are, in fact, nothing more than a bribe.

That initial handful of municipalities has grown to 216. In some cases, the mayor’s first action was to move a motion to hand what powers he or she could back to the council and staff where they belong. Notably, that was not the case here. Our mayor instead used the power so generously granted him by the premier to approve a project many area residents objected to without real debate and with the support of only three members of council. The other duly elected councillors might well have wondered why they were there.

Now, we are having these same powers, dubbed “strong-chair powers,” granted to the chairs of the regional councils of Durham, Halton, Muskoka, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo, York and the warden of Simcoe County. Each chair and the warden will be appointed by the provincial government. For 180 years, the warden of Simcoe County has been elected by the members of county council who, in turn, have been the elected mayors and deputy mayors of their municipalities.

If the extension of strong-mayor powers is anything to go by, strong-chair (and warden) powers won’t stop with those eight jurisdictions. Maybe Peterborough County will be next?

In addition to tampering with the authority of councillors (reduced) and mayors (increased), Ford’s government has also handed out Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs) as if they were Halloween candy. MZOs rezone local properties, thereby increasing their value, without council approval or public input. They were used 16 times in the 15 years previous to the Ford government. They have been used close to 200 times since.

Planning rules have been arbitrarily put in place by the province without consultation with municipalities.

It appears as if conservation authorities are about to be amalgamated over the objections of both local municipalities and environmentalists.

The Freedom of Information Act will no longer apply to the premier, cabinet ministers or parliamentary assistants. Not just in the future, but retroactively. Now, we may never know what was behind the decision to open parts of the Greenbelt to developers.

Elected school board trustees may be replaced by provincially appointed administrators.

Why not local councils? Think about it. Like school boards, regions and counties, municipalities are “creatures of the province.” Their councils, including their mayors, are elected by the people.

© Peterborough Examiner