As a follow-up to our presentation to the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy on Bill 9, Municipal Accountability Act, we have provided a written submission with detailed recommendations for improvements to the Act.
While we welcome the Act and feel it is a step in the right direction, further improvements must be made to better protect the safety and well-being of municipal professionals. Our recommendations highlight the need for a new framework that enhances staff protections and includes an independent mechanism for conducting investigations and applying sanctions.
- Create an independent mechanism to investigate instances of harassment and incivility, and to apply sanctions as appropriate.
- Ensure proper safeguards are in place to protect municipal staff, including whistle-blower protection.
- Remove all employment matters from strong mayor powers, such as the ability to hire and dismiss municipal chief administrative officers and division heads, and the ability to reorganize municipal structures.
Other recommendations to improve the framework put forward in the Act include:
- Work in collaboration with the municipal sector, including municipal staff associations like AMCTO, and local integrity commissioners, to develop a code of conduct with additional minimum standards.
- Ensure that municipal codes of conduct work with existing legislative employment standards and other interrelated policies.
- Work with the municipal sector to ensure that mandatory education and training meet the needs of local communities.
- Require members of council to confirm their commitment to codes of conduct on an annual basis and mandate penalties if a member does not participate in education/training, and/or confirms their commitment to their code.
- Develop and deliver training for local integrity commissioners in collaboration with experts in the municipal accountability and transparency framework.
- Create a roster of qualified integrity commissioners and consider other options for preserving the independence of the role.
- Further clarify the complaints process, including the ability of local integrity commissioners to dismiss frivolous requests.
- Provide a wider range of remedial penalties to discourage misconduct that may not meet the threshold for removal.
- Develop a standard operating procedure for inquiries conducted by the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario.
- Remove the threshold for unanimous council support for removing a member of council. Consider a 2/3 majority.
Our submission also contains several considerations for implementation, as we know that you, our members, will ultimately be responsible for operationalizing many of the changes that come with this legislation. We've also highlighted several gray areas in the legislation that should be reviewed and addressed by the Province.
Thank you to those members, including our Policy and Government Relations Committee, for providing your comments and feedback to help inform this submission. As always, please feel free to contact us with any additional ideas or questions you may have.
As an Association, we will continue to advocate for protections for municipal staff and look forward to following this bill and the development of corresponding regulations.