On an annual basis, the AMCTO policy and government relations team will work with a paid research assistant to undertake new research projects and initiatives to support our sector advocacy. Applications for our 2025 paid research assistant opportunity are open now until Friday, June 20 to all Student and New Professional members - read below for details and how to apply.
The Opportunity
AMCTO plays an important role in supporting municipal administrators. Our advocacy aims to create a modern legislative and regulatory environment that supports and enables the work of municipal professionals, making legislation easier to understand and enforce, and encourages innovation while ensuring policies and practices reflect current needs and situations, focusing on outcomes.
The Municipal Act (MA) should be reviewed and updated with a focus on modernization, accountability and transparency, financial fairness, good governance, and continued enabling provisions. On behalf of our members, the Association is undertaking work to determine what changes need to be made, what promising practices could be adopted in Ontario, and we are looking to address and mitigate the impacts of strong mayor provisions on municipal leaders, staff, and administration. Our goal is to present recommendations to influence the Province’s direction on changes and updates to the MA.
This project will examine the legislation applied to municipalities in other Canadian jurisdictions and internationally, with a guiding question: How can Ontario’s Municipal Act (MA) be improved to better serve local communities?
The project will involve:
- Conducting a jurisdictional scan of enabling legislation for municipalities in Canada and internationally to identify best practices and innovations in local government legislation that could be adapted to the Municipal Act.
- As part of the scan, focus should be given to how roles, duties, and responsibilities of the head of council, council, and administrative leaders like the chief administrative officer (CAO) and staff are codified, looking at council-manager (so-called 'weak mayor') and mayor-council (so-called 'strong mayor') systems including protections for staff.
- Compiling a review of academic literature to understand the benefits and limitations of enabling legislation and administrative/operational considerations in various jurisdictions to inform best practices.
- Compiling findings and best practices that could be considered for Ontario into a presentation deck. This should include an analysis of the risks and benefits of various practices.
If you are an AMCTO Student or New Professional member with two (2) - five (5) years of professional municipal experience conducting jurisdictional scans, interpreting legislation, and conducting policy analysis, we want to hear from you!
See further project details and how to submit an expression of interest at the link below. Expressions of interest will be accepted until Friday, June 20, 2025. Project work will begin in July 2025 through until February 2026.