Ontario premier Doug Ford’s proposals for ‘super mayors’ in Toronto and Ottawa have nothing to do with democracy. What he seems to be trying to do is make sure that the developers keep working with city hall. It is probably the only way that those cities will ever have close to enough affordable housing.
As I understand it so far, the idea is to give the super mayor a veto over any motion by council but council can overrule the mayor with a two-thirds vote. Giving the super mayor control over budgeting as well as department appointments could also be part of the package. Knowing how the progressives and right-wing members break down on council, such a formula in Toronto would give the mayor a virtual control of the current council. While there is not a clear-cut right-left breakdown of council, you do see more left-wing councillors downtown and more right-wing suburban council members.
While there is general consensus that the more powerful mayor system would be more efficient, that does not mean that more meaningful work would be done. A powerful mayor might be able to negotiate more geared-to-income rental housing being built in the city but the mayor would also need to be motivated to use the power in that direction.
And there is still the not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) attitude to geared-to-income in individual wards. No councillor wants to be drawn into battle with his or her voters.
Ideally the super mayor would have the ability to negotiate with developers to include a ratio of geared-to-income in any major project.
It is amusing to realize that a similar super mayor concept was proposed by the McGinty liberal government back in 2008 and David Miller, mayor at that time, thought the system was unnecessary.
Obviously, the imagination of the municipal affairs experts at Queen’s Park have yet to be challenged by this proposition. We will await developments.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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