Strong mayor powers have now been expanded to 21 cities, including North Bay.
According to the province, “Strong mayor powers offer tools to help heads of council cut red tape and speed up the delivery of key shared municipal-provincial priorities such as housing, transit and infrastructure in their municipalities.”
Mayor Peter Chirico says he intends to maintain collaboration with council, but there are provincial legislative requirements to follow.
“I am committed to working collaboratively with our city council, and I have no intention of exercising these powers in a way that undermines our strong team,” he says. “However, we must adhere to the provincial legislation, and as such, I am taking these steps to ensure transparency and accountability.”
To that end, Chirico is issuing mayoral decisions to maintain the existing committees of council and delegating specific strong mayor powers.
That includes giving council the authority to appoint or dismiss a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and delegating the hiring and reorganization of municipal department heads to the CAO.
In August, the province announced it is expanding strong mayor powers to an additional 21 municipalities that are projected to have populations of 50,000 by 2031 and whose heads of council are committed to a provincially assigned housing target.
North Bay’s target is another 1,000 homes by 2031.
It allows municipalities to be eligible for “The Building Faster Fund” which, according to the province, will provide $400 million in new annual funding for three years to municipalities that are on target to meet the provincial housing targets.
Municipalities that reach 80 per cent of their annual target each year will become eligible for funding based on their share of the overall goal of 1.5 million homes.
Those that exceed their target will also receive a bonus.
The city says a webpage has been launched on its website to include all mayoral decisions related to strong mayor powers to ensure transparency and accessibility.
