London, Ont. mayor on ‘strong mayor’ powers

London, Ont., is among 26 more Ontario municipalities set to see the implementation of so-called strong mayor powers.

Ontario’s Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark said Friday the powers are expanding beyond Toronto and Ottawa to other large and fast-growing municipalities.

He said the new powers will ensure municipalities deliver on provincial housing commitments as the Progressive Conservative government works toward a goal of building 1.5 million homes in 10 years.

The strong mayor powers include allowing mayors to propose housing-related bylaws and pass them with the support of one-third of councillors. It also allows them to override council approval of bylaws, such as a zoning bylaw, which may impact the creation of more homes.

London Mayor Josh Morgan says he doesn’t plan to use the overriding power.

“I believe in driving consensus on issues,” he said. “That’s how I’ve operated in the past and that’s my approach to how I’ll operate in the future. For me, we have a council that’s (been) able to find the consensus of viewpoints across the city. I expect we’ll be moving forward in that way and that this not a tool I would even need to contemplate using,” Morgan continued.

Moving forward, the mayor of London says he plans to meet with the senior leadership team soon.

“We’re going to go through the legislation and identify the different areas of the corporation where the legislation can impact the work being done there,” he said. “From there, we’ll talk to the senior leaders to see what are the tools that may be advantageous for the municipality to use, what are the ones that we don’t feel have any use for us at all, and what are the conditions under which we would approach using them?”

In terms of whether he believes these powers would help with the province’s housing crisis, Morgan said it would depend on how the mayors plan to use the additional tools.

“I do think there are parts of legislation that allow you to act faster in certain circumstances. The question is how often do those circumstances arise and what is the right choice for those instances? They’re tools in a toolbox, (but) you have to use the right tool at the right time and in the right way,” he said. “Just because there’s a tool in the toolbox doesn’t mean you have to use it.”

— With files from 980 CFPL’s Ben Harrietha and The Canadian Press