Local Mayors Granted Strong Mayor Powers

The province has handed this to 26 more municipalities

The province has extended strong mayor powers to 26 more areas, including St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. 

The announcement was made this morning by Housing Minister Steve Clark. 

This is being done to help the province meet its goal of building over a million new homes by 2031. 

The new powers include allowing mayors to veto by-laws that conflict with provincial priorities, though councils could override the veto with a two-thirds majority vote. 

It also allows mayors to propose housing related bylaws and pass them with the support of a third of council. 

Other communities on the list include Mississauga, Waterloo, Hamilton and Barrie. 

St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe offered the following statement in response to today's news: 

"The Ontario government announced today that it is expanding Strong Mayor powers to the Mayors of 26 large and fast-growing municipalities that have committed to a housing pledge as part of the province’s work to build 1.5 million homes by 2031.  St. Catharines is one of the 26 municipalities that have been given these Strong Mayor powers, which come into effect on July 1, 2023.  

In March, Council unanimously supported the City’s housing pledge which demonstrated our commitment to do everything within our areas of responsibility to approve 11,000 new housing units in the next decade. The extension of the additional Strong Mayor authority is intended to assist us with this goal and more broadly assist with Ontario’s housing shortage, which remains a priority for both the province and municipalities in every part of Ontario. 

While I appreciate the province making the changes today, my time as Mayor has been spent working with my colleagues to build a strong Council.  I have always embraced the healthy debate we see in council chambers, and that work will continue to be my focus as we move forward.

Thus far, we’ve been able to achieve a number of important milestones including the unanimous endorsement of our Housing Strategy and Pledge, as well as successful votes on incentives for housing and broad support for increases to the affordable and attainable housing stock.

Today’s announcement provides another tool in the toolbox, but it is not one that I envision having to use in our Council chamber.

I look forward to continuing to demonstrate leadership by building consensus with my council colleagues in moving our great City forward."