The Ford government’s reform of the rules governing misbehaving councillors has passed its third reading and is set to become law, after receiving support from all of Ontario’s major parties.
The proposed law, known as Bill 9 or the Municipal Accountability Act, was first tabled in May 2025 and passed through committee over the summer, but has languished for months while other laws have been approved.
It would standardize municipal codes of conduct, give the provincial integrity commissioner a more direct say over local investigations and create a mechanism to remove councillors in the most extreme cases.
It was brought for third reading on Tuesday morning and passed almost unanimously.
Only independent MPP Bobbi Ann Brady voted against the measure. The bill otherwise drew support from the governing Progressive Conservatives, the Ontario NDP, the Liberals and the Greens.
Once it receives Royal Assent, the bill will become law, triggering the creation of regulations that the government is planning to pass before October’s municipal elections.
The key change the law will usher in is the ability to remove elected councillors from office.
To do so, the measure must be recommended by the local integrity commissioner, approved by their provincial counterpart and then agreed to by all members of council except the individual who has been accused.
Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack said he thought having a high threshold was important because it was being applied to people who had won a democratic vote.
“It has to be a lot of steps because it has to be a difficult decision to kick anybody that’s been elected publicly. That is why we’ve made it that way. We’re not saying it’s absolutely perfect, but it’s a great start.”
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Removal from office is something advocates have repeatedly called for, but they believe the government has set the bar too high.
“This is a critical step,” Emily McIntosh, the founder of the Women of Ontario Say No, told reporters at Queen’s Park.
“We do need to be strengthened, it does need to be better. The unanimous vote threshold is not OK because all of us can have one person to derail ultimate accountability.”
Ontario NDP MPP Jeff Burch said the law should have included a different approach to removing elected officials.
“The politicization of councillors voting against their colleagues is just too high a bar,” he said.
Stephen Blais, Ontario Liberal MPP, said it was important to secure consensus on some measures and then look to improve the legislation later.
“I wouldn’t say holding our nose, but we have concerns with some of the provisions, but it’s a step in the right direction,” he said.
“I’m a football guy. In order to score a touchdown, you need to move the ball down the field. Sometimes that happens in small increments, sometimes that happens in a big play. This was a small increment.”
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) welcomed the change as an important step.
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“The municipal sector has long advocated for a provincial code of conduct legislation and AMO commends Minister Flack and Premier Ford for passing this important bill,” the organization’s president wrote in a statement.
“This is progress that we can build upon.”
It has taken years to get to this point.
Back in 2021, the province came within days of introducing a law which would have allowed judges to disqualify councillors and made elected officials pay for the cost of investigations into their conduct.
But the legislation disappeared without ever being tabled. A new version was finally introduced at the end of 2024 and was later ditched when Premier Doug Ford called a snap election.
Bill 9 was reintroduced in May and then sent to committee, where advocates pushed for changes around how a councillor can be removed.
Councillor removal appears to be the major sticking point and Flack said it took a series of conversations to get everyone to agree.
“I think the bottom line is there were a lot of strong opinions on both sides of the equation, especially on the ability to remove someone from office,” he said.
“There were differing opinions, but they were strong opinions and that’s healthy in the debate. At the end of the day, I think everyone decided having a bill passed and having a code of conduct in place was a good thing.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford acknowledged on Tuesday he had reservations about the legislation but accepted the compromise.
“My reservations are one thing — be it the left or the right, doesn’t matter — attacking one councillor based on their political beliefs,” he said.
“But we passed it through, I obviously voted on it, I agreed with all parties. Hopefully it’s all going to work out.”
Allowing council to vote again to endorse the removal has raised concerns among some advocates and smaller municipalities.
We think that the rule you are making for council should also apply to the Ontario provincial ledgistature as well. It would sure be nice to remove the MPP’s with such ease “Bill 9 is a monumental step forward for the accountability of bad actors, how about we implement this as well