The mayor of a small eastern council in conflict has exercised strong powers of mayor, only one month after the controversial measures extended to the new municipalities.
Last week, Arie Hoogenboom, mayor of Rideau Lakes, vetoed a decision of the council to search for appointments for a plan to renew the municipal offices of the municipality located about 100 kilometers southwest of the center of Ottawa.
If the existing offices should be updated or build new is the source of a long -lasting and bitter dispute that has divided the Council. The opposite factions have leveled more than a dozen complaints from the Commissioner of Integrity with each other.
The existing offices are located in the village of the cane and require update. Hoogenboom is in favor of relocating the facilities to a more populated area, and believes that this measure could facilitate the development of a subdivision. But most council members oppose the idea as too expensive, preferring to renew existing offices.
In March, Hoogenboom said that the atmosphere had grown so toxic that it was temporarily moving away from some of its duties.
But that did not prevent him from last Monday vetoed a decision of his opponents to send a modernization and an addition plan so that the existing municipal offices are tendered.
‘Much bigger than problems in Rideau Lakes’
To invoke the new powers, mayors must give a justification for how the measure is aligned with provincial priorities. Hoogenboom justified his veto when referring to provincial priorities to build new homes and maintain the infrastructure, and said he retained the support of the local community.
“In the last elections I received a significant mandate from the public to build a municipal office,” he said in an interview.
“I am totally convinced that if there were any public consultation on this, the public would clearly indicate that they were in favor of my option.”
But Paula Banks, one of the five councilors opposed to Hoogenboom, said that using the strong powers of the mayor was anti -democratic.
“It is a vote of five or three and was allowed to stop,” he said. “This story is much bigger than the problems in Rideau Lakes.”
On May 1, the mayors in 169 municipalities of Ontario received the power to veto the statutes, approved others with only one third of the Council in favor and shoot and hire chiefs of the municipal department. The measures were first introduced in 2022 for the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa, as a way of advancing in provincial policy priorities.
‘Antidemocratic’ powers
But the measures have proven to be controversial. Banks said that he is communicating with the other municipalities recently granted strong powers of mayor and said that the majority of those he has heard are against them.
“Most municipalities oppose this,” he said. “Our mayors say it is a bad idea, our councilors say that it is anti -democratic and that the Ford government is ignoring it.”
Banks said he hopes to build a coalition to press Prime Minister Doug Ford to terminate the provisions.
In Rideau Lakes, Banks and its four allies approved a resolution in the Council that opposes strong mayor of the powers and asked to choose not to participate. Hoogenboom was absent from the vote.
After Hoogenboom used their new powers, those five councilors sought to defeat their use, but lacked the majority of two thirds needed to do so.
That has left the council divided unable to continue with a course of action, said Hoogenboom.
“We are still a little persecutive,” he said, recognizing that his “mandate is severely committed.”
Meanwhile, a decision about what to do with the municipal offices of the municipality will probably have to wait until after next year’s elections, according to Hoogenboom.
“When there is a good possibility that there are more people who are willing to row in the same direction,” he said.
