Hamilton City Manager Marnie Cluckie is departing the City of Hamilton after two and a half years to become the new Chief Administrative Officer of the Halifax Regional Municipality. In a written statement issued at 12:27 p.m., Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath announced that Cluckie will depart Hamilton on September 22, 2026.
“On behalf of Council, I want to thank Ms. Cluckie for her dedicated service to the City of Hamilton,” Horwath said in the statement. “Leading a city as large and complex as Hamilton is no small responsibility and I appreciate Ms. Cluckie’s leadership and contributions to our community. Working together, we have advanced important priorities, strengthened our organization and positioned our city for continued success. We congratulate her on this exciting opportunity and wish her every success in the next chapter of her career.”
Horwath’s statement said plans for interim management of the City would be forthcoming.
She was the first City Manager appointed under the new Strong Mayor Powers. However, Mayor Horwath implemented an eight-member interview panel comprised of herself, two citizens, and six councillors. The panel recommended Cluckie, who was then formally appointed by Horwath as required by the Municipal Act.
Cluckie, who was born and raised in Hamilton, assumed the role of Hamilton City Manager in January 2024. Within her first three weeks, she began a culture change plan, including terminating senior managers whose behaviours were harming the City’s efforts to achieve strategic goals.
Cluckie’s plans for her first 100 days were derailed when the City of Hamilton experienced the most severe cybersecurity failure in Canadian municipal history. The February 24, 2024, event took nearly every City of Hamilton system offline. Nearly 30 months later, the City of Hamilton is still trying to restore some of its operations. The City’s financial systems have not been restored, and no public financial statements have been released since the 2022 audit. As a result, the City’s credit rating was downgraded. S&P has warned further downgrades are possible.
2024 ended with the City engulfed in the Barton-Tiffany temporary outdoor shelter controversy. In August 2024, Mayor Horwath issued a mayoral directive to expand emergency shelters, resulting in a non-competitive $1.4 million contract awarded to Microshelters Inc. for 40 Made-in-China tiny shelters. The project was awarded to a newly incorporated company with no experience or prior record, and the final cost ballooned from $2.8 million to $7.9 million.
Following a highly critical internal audit report on the procurement process, Cluckie addressed Hamilton City Council in February 2026. She acknowledged the seriousness of the findings and apologized for the gaps in oversight and governance.
Hamilton’s current council was elected in 2022 on the promise of change. Turnover in the City’s senior bureaucracy has been near-total since. During Cluckie’s tenure, all of Hamilton’s seniormost managers have changed with the exception of Council favourite General Manager of Finance and Corporate Services Mike Zegarac.
Most recently, the Executive Director of Human Resources, and the Human Resources Director of Talent and Diversity, were both let go from their roles. The General Manager of Planning and Economic Development position has been vacant since Cluckie’s 2025 GM hire was let go by Council in June 2026 following allegations he was working for a developer as a consultant while overseeing planning approval in Markham.
Cluckie’s changes to upper management, and current vacancies, means her successor will begin with a fresh slate to implement their vision and the direction of whomever is Mayor following the upcoming October municipal elections.
Mayor Horwath has to name an interim City Manager to manage the City’s bureaucracy following September 22. After the election, the Mayor will need to determine how they will fill the City Manager vacancy.
“Serving the city where I was born and raised has been one of the greatest privileges of my career,” Cluckie said in the statement. “This is an exciting opportunity for my family and me and I leave knowing the city is in exceptionally capable hands.”
Production Details
v. 2.0.0
Published: July 3, 2026
Last updated: July 3, 2026
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version [Initial news brief]
v. 2.0.0 News story version.
Discussion
2 commentsHopefully this a new pathway for mayor and councillors. Head of planning and business manager … who’s next ?
Curious if this means Horwath won’t be running in the fall. Marnie was her right hand woman.