Long expected and overdue, the Ontario Conservative government released Bill 241 to amend the Municipal Act to deal with the more egregious violations of decency and law by municipal councillors.
However, the Bill does not provide any safeguards to end council retaliations against integrity commissioners – who often find their contracts terminated when they enforce rules.
The Bill promises to bring standards to the practice of municipal integrity commissioners, and gives the provincial Ontario Integrity Commissioner the ability to recommend removal from office for the worst municipal offenders.
In extreme cases of misconduct, local integrity commissioners can refer matters to the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario. The Ontario IC can recommend removal from office and ban the removed member from returning to office for four years.
The Ontario IC’s recommendation must be unanimously approved by the local council or board. This provides a further safeguard against abuse.
[I will try to analyze the voting blocs in Pickering, Sarnia, Sudbury, and Welland to opine regarding the odds that Ontario’s most frequent integrity violators could be removed from office.]
Potential changes in Hamilton: Hamilton Council’s code of conduct may be superseded by a new provincewide code.
1) This could mean Hamilton councillors will be subject to Hamilton’s zero-tolerance “R-Zone” policy. Presently, Hamilton council members are exempt from the rules that apply to the rest of us; instead, they are held to the lower standards contained in their own Code of Conduct.
2) We can expect that a provincial code for councillors will state they cannot violate the Criminal Code or other laws.
‘Fixing’ the definition of ‘local board’ regarding integrity matters
Schedule 2 in Bill 241 states the Minister of Municipal Affairs “may make regulations prescribing local boards for the purposes of the definition of ‘local board’ in section 223.1.”
In 2022, thanks to last term’s Hamilton City Council’s use of its “integrity commissioner” (the firm of a retired Hamilton City Solicitor that was given the role in a non-competitive contract award) against the LGBTQ Advisory Committee, Ontario’s Division Court ruled that all of Ontario’s municipal volunteer advisory committee members are subject to IC investigations.
Many municipalities are disbanding their advisory committees due to the burden of complying with local board definition created by Hamilton.
This new section enables the Minister to address this problem.
In December, Hamilton City Council voted down a staff request to eliminate Hamilton’s advisory committees. Staff cited the difficulty of complying with the requirements of them being local boards.
Bill 241 should be enacted during the spring sitting of Ontario’s Legislative Assembly. However, if Premier Doug Ford calls an early election, the Bill will need to be reintroduced after an election.
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Published: January 2, 2025
Last updated: January 2, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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