AMCTO has had a busy few weeks with visits to Queen’s Park to discuss advocacy priorities on behalf of members. We delegated before the Standing Committee on Justice Policy as the only municipal representative regarding Bill 194, Strengthening Cyber Security and Building Trust in the Public Sector Act, 2024. We also met with Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Paul Calandra, regarding our submission on the Municipal Elections Act (MEA) and discussed key issues like housing, municipal finance and strong mayor powers.
Our team has also been reviewing Provincial policies that continue to put municipalities’ decision-making powers at risk and create unnecessary administrative burden for staff. Read more on this below.
Presentation at Standing Committee
AMCTO was the only municipal representative invited to speak before the committee. On November 15, Executive Director, David Arbuckle spoke on behalf of the Association to reinforce the need to modernize legislation and provide recommendations where we see opportunities for improvement.
As members will recall, we submitted comments to the Government’s regulatory posting on Bill 194, Strengthening Cyber Security and Building Trust in the Public Sector Act, 2024. In addition to making recommendations related to the Bill, David spoke about the need to future-proof the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA). As we noted in our MFIPPA submission earlier this year, the legislation is over 30 years old, has not been comprehensively reviewed and regulations still contain outdated technology references (i.e. CD-ROMs). We had also flagged that the legislation was not equipped to manage changes to technology like artificial intelligence (AI) which is a key item within Bill 194.
While the Bill is a good first step towards enhancing digital security and establishing trust across public sector institutions, David highlighted:
- The interconnectedness between cybersecurity, AI, and privacy protection, and the need to modernize MFIPPA to reflect this connection.
- The differences in municipal digital maturity, capacity, and resources that need to be considered in the development of regulations.
- Municipalities and their staff will need adequate guidance and resources to support the implementation of requirements.
- The legislation should contain more information about responsible use and trustworthy AI principles.
- Regulations should be developed in collaboration with affected stakeholders including municipalities.
David also expressed that subject to collaborative consultation and having supportive resources in place, AMCTO supports extending similar proposed provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) to MFIPPA. However, in its current form, MFIPPA is onerous, lacks clarity, creates additional unnecessary work, and is not equipped to consider important technology trends. Local government administrators need a modern MFIPPA before adding new provisions to an old Act.
The transcript of the committee proceedings will be available on the Ontario Legislative Assembly website soon.
There are still opportunities for municipal councils to endorse our recommendations. For a template resolution please see our member toolkit, and don’t forget to copy us in your correspondence to the minister.
Meeting with the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
We were pleased to meet with Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Paul Calandra, on November 18 to continue to advocate for changes to the MEA ahead of the 2026 municipal and school board elections.
We were happy to hear that the Minister was receptive to making changes to the MEA and agreed with us that it needs a comprehensive review. While no timelines were provided, we remain hopeful that some amendments to the Act can be made in time for the 2026 elections. We have emphasized to the ministry since the release of our submission in April that changes to the Act would ideally come by spring 2025 to avoid significant impacts to elections planning that is already well underway.
We also took the opportunity to reinforce our concerns about the impacts of strong mayor powers on municipal professionals and organizational culture, specifically related to the role of the chief administrative officer (CAO), department heads, and organizational structure, as well as our concerns about the continued health and sustainability of local government administration.
There are still opportunities for municipal councils to endorse our MEA recommendations or for clerks to submit a letter to the ministry about their concerns with the legislation. Members can access these templates in our toolkit.
Other Submissions
We are concerned about the increasing encroachment of the Province on matters of local decision-making through policy initiatives that also place more administrative and cost burdens on municipalities and their staff.
As a result, we submitted comments to the Government’s proposal related to bike lanes. While AMCTO does not traditionally comment on these matters, we believe the Provincial overreach and intrusion into local decision-making warranted a formal response.
We may make a similar submission related to schedule 4 of the new Bill 223, Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act, 2024 which prevents municipalities from working with the federal government on safe consumption sites and requires applications to the Province for approvals for such sites.
We note that the sector continues to wait for the Province to act on areas where municipalities and their staff have requested support and resources. We will keep you, our members, informed of the Government's response and our next steps on these and other matters, and continue to advocate for the interests of the municipal profession and those dedicated to serving their communities.
For more information or to discuss further, please contact us.