Council Preview
By John Swartz
Orillia council has a Special Meeting Tuesday April 15 at 4 p.m. The meeting was called because 6 councillors (Durnford, Fallis, Lauer, Campbell, Leatherdale and Czetwerzuk) petitioned to have this meeting regarding the granting by the province of Strong Mayor Powers to the City of Orillia.
The extension of power was made April 3 by municipal affairs minister Robert Flack in a letter which began with,
“In response to your request as head of council for strong mayor powers to help manage the significant impacts and power outages within your municipality resulting from recent ice storms, I would like to inform you that, effective April 3, 2025, I have expanded the strong mayor framework to the City of Orillia. These strong mayor powers will remain effective until June 30, 2025.”
The province has since, made those powers permanent, instead of temporary, effective May 1. At the same time the province advised strong mayor powers will be extended to another 169 municipalities, several of which are rejecting the move.
At the April 7 regular council meeting councillors questioned the mayor on this issue.
Mayor McIsaac stated the powers were needed in light of the ice storm emergency. It is worth noting those extraordinary powers were not needed during the pandemic state of emergency, where through the declaration many of the decision making powers of an immediate nature are delegated by council to the mayor and the emergency committee.
Also on April 7 in a council information filing available in a new webpage on the City’s website, so new there are only two entries, council was informed the awarding of the position of chief administration officer of the City of Orillia to Trevor Lee (former deputy CAO, Guelph) was revoked under strong mayor power and the job was going to Orillia’s current deputy chief administrative officer/general manager of corporate services, Amanpreet Singh Sidhu. The noticed was dated April 7, but only publicly posted, as required under the Municipal Act, on April 8. There is no timestamp with the postings whether the notice was made prior to the April 7 council meeting.
April 7ths meeting conclude with a motion by council for the minister to rescind the granting of strong mayor powers effective immediately. It passed with a recorded vote, with only councillor Whitney Smith and the mayor voting against.
The strong mayor parameters are very similar to those held by mayors of American cities. Among the powers granted mayors have authority to:
- Direct work to be done immediately on municipal infrastructure in direct response to the emergency
- Overlook municipal purchasing policies to obtain equipment or services in response to the emergency
- Enact special authority under municipal by-laws, such as a delegation of authority by-law
- Restrict access to or close municipal buildings and offices
- Use volunteers and protect them under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act
- Request Federal support and resources, such as military support
- Request support through municipal mutual support agreements if they have them in place
- Could be a requirement for Provincial or Federal funding
- Veto power of budget provisions
Since last week’s meeting a letter signed by 4 councillors was circulated, and a petition was launched and signed as of publication by 377 people to reverse the decision on Lee.
At time of publication no provision has been made to stream the meeting, as has been done with all public council meetings, on the City’s Youtube page.
This issue was raised by SUNonline/Orillia and Melissa Gowanlock, the City’s manager of communications responded with:
“As outlined in the City’s Procedure By-law, meetings of Council may be livestreamed; however, livestreaming is not a requirement. This special meeting was called outside of the regular meeting schedule, and due to staff capacity, livestreaming is not possible.“
The meeting, to be held in council chambers is open to the public and there is no provision for a public forum on the agenda.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
