Strong mayors dismissing several chief administrative officers or other top officials
What was marketed as a housing crisis solution has increasingly become a tool for reshaping municipal workforces, according to a report.
Since Doug Ford's government introduced strong-mayor powers across Ontario in 2023, the leading application of those powers has been corporate organization — including the hiring and firing of senior city staff — raising questions among experts, councillors and public servants about the long-term impact on local government accountability.
According to the Toronto Star, just two per cent of more than 4,200 strong-mayor decisions issued since the law's inception have been directly tied to housing. Staffing changes, by contrast, have been the dominant use, with at least nine documented cases in which strong mayors terminated chief administrative officers or other top officials.
Strong-mayor powers and duties
The powers themselves are broad. Under Ontario's provincial guide to strong-mayor powers and duties, the head of council in a designated municipality can appoint a chief administrative officer, hire and fire division heads, restructure the municipal organization, and propose by-laws that can pass with support from just over one-third of council — a significant departure from the traditional requirement of majority council approval.
A narrow set of statutory positions are shielded from dismissal, including the clerk, treasurer, police chief, fire chief and auditor general.
The province has framed these authorities around a stated priority of building 1.5 million new homes by Dec. 31, 2031, according to the Ontario guide. Mayors can also veto council by-laws they believe could interfere with that priority, with council able to override the veto only by a two-thirds vote of all members.
Sudden termination of new hire
In practice, according to the Toronto Star, one of the most visible uses of those powers has played out through staff changes that previously required majority council approval. When Orillia mayor Don McIsaac was granted strong-mayor powers following a devastating spring ice storm — at his own request to housing minister Rob Flack — his first move was to terminate an incoming chief administrative officer just days before the official was set to begin work.
The hire had been approved by council, and the administrator learned of the termination minutes after visiting city offices to collect a new phone and laptop, local media reported.
A petition with more than 400 signatures followed, with residents describing the move as "a gross abuse of power" and a decision that "spits in the face of democracy," according to the Toronto Star. Council voted to ask the province to rescind Orillia's strong-mayor powers. The province refused and instead made them permanent.
Councillor David Campbell was among those who voted to rescind the powers.
"I find it ironic that Doug Ford criticizes Donald Trump so much. Strong-mayor powers are very much something like Trump would do, giving powers to these individuals to upend the system," he said. "That idea of power and control — it's not right. It's not the way our system should work in Canada."
McIsaac defended his decision in an interview with the Toronto Star. "That's what this is about — accountability. I think that we have used (strong-mayor powers) only to advance the interest of the province in the city, and I think it's been well used by Orillia," he said.
Sweeping restructuring
Similar controversies have unfolded elsewhere. In Caledon, mayor Annette Groves dismissed the town's chief administrative officer within a month of receiving the powers in 2023, the Toronto Star reported. Her replacement oversaw a sweeping restructuring that saw the chief planner, top lawyer, clerk, chief financial officer, and several other senior bureaucrats leave through terminations, resignations, and retirements.
In Haldimand County, mayor Shelley Ann Bentley used strong-mayor powers to dismiss chief administrative officer Cathy Case — a popular figure within the municipality, according to the Toronto Star.
The move came after Case and another official had launched an investigation into leaked confidential correspondence.
Documentation required for dismissals
Haldimand County's integrity commissioner later concluded the mayor had orchestrated the leak. Bentley rejected those findings. "Let's move on, let's move forward. We're refocusing here," she told council last September, offering no detailed reasons for the dismissal.
The provincial framework does include accountability requirements. According to Ontario's guide to strong-mayor powers and duties, whenever a head of council exercises these additional powers, they are required to provide written documentation to the municipal clerk and all members of council by the next business day, and that documentation must be made available to the public.
However, experts told the Toronto Star that transparency rules alone do not address the structural risk these powers create for the public service. David Arbuckle, executive director of the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario, said the effect on staff culture is already tangible.
Some members fear "retribution" for offering unwelcome advice, he said. "It does put some handcuffs on staff if they feel that ultimately their actions and their advice are being brought forward to someone who can make a decision in relation to their employment."
Gabriel Eidelman, a professor at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, told the Toronto Star that concentrating staffing authority in a single political leader is not inherently problematic, but requires guardrails that Ontario's current model lacks.
Other orders of government with similar structures have protections in place to ensure public servants' analysis remains "objective and evidence-based as opposed to politically motivated," he said.
