AMCTO has long held the position that there remain opportunities to strengthen municipal administration through clarifying the roles and responsibilities between council and staff, and in particular, the role of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). Yesterday's announcement of Bill 3: Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act in the Ontario legislature comes with significant risk of politicizing local government leadership as well as adding to the administrative burden of our members and other municipal staff.
While this Act currently only applies to Toronto and Ottawa, earlier media reports suggest this legislation could soon be applied to other cities with Tuesday's Speech from the Throne referencing "urban populations". Stay tuned for more details and our full analysis on the Speech from the Throne to come.
In the meantime, in response to this announcement and on behalf of you, our members, we have sent the following letter (linked below) to Minister Clark to make him aware of our concerns and to offer an opportunity to discuss alternate legislative solutions that consider all parties.
Read our Response To Bill 3(PDF)
As an organization that represents over 2,000 municipal staff including many CAOs and senior municipal leaders, we know this is an important issue that impacts municipal staff at all levels.
We will be following the movement of this Bill through the legislative process and will be sure to keep you up to date on any new developments. As always, we will continue to serve you and advocate on your behalf.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us for more information and to share any feedback or concerns:
Alana Del Greco
Manager, Policy and Government Relations
Email
Charlotte Caza
Policy Advisor
Email