Province weighs letting judges oust councillors
Survey asks public for feedback on how municipal councils are held accountable
The provincial government wants to know what Ontario residents think about giving judges the power to turf troublesome city councillors from office.
The government launched a survey on Wednesday after announcing a public consultation last month in response to calls for changes to how municipal councillors and mayors are held to account.
The announcement followed an integrity investigation into College Coun. Rick Chiarelli and allegations of his lewd behaviour toward women who worked in his office and women he interviewed for jobs. Council unanimously voted to apply the maximum penalty available under provincial law: a 90-day salary suspension for each formal complaint. Applied as consecutive penalties, the total salary suspension is 450 days and it started on Aug. 14, 2020.
Chiarelli is challenging the jurisdiction of integrity commissioner Robert Marleau in divisional court, with a hearing scheduled in May. He has denied all allegations against him.
The integrity findings in the Chiarelli case were made under council's code of conduct. The province requires municipalities to establish codes of conduct for their elected officials covering issues like gifts, municipal assets, confidential information and respectful behaviour.
Municipalities receive their powers from the province, which doesn't have a way to unseat a municipal council member for bad behaviour.
In its survey, the province is asking the public if municipal codes of conduct should cover other areas.
The province also wants to know what people think about ideas submitted by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). The City of Ottawa is a member of AMO.
The association has made four recommendations to the province about how code-of-conduct issues should be strengthened, and three of them relate to penalties elected members should face for breaching the code.
The organization says the province should allow for administrative monetary penalties with thresholds specific to the municipality and suspensions for circumstances that could “negatively impact public health and safety.”
AMO also recommends that the province should allow a judge to remove a council member from office on the advice of an integrity commissioner who has found “serious and/or repeated breaches” of the code of conduct.
The fourth recommendation calls for better training and standards for integrity commissioners “to improve capacity and consistency of decision-making across the province.”
A letter sent by AMO to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark in February said the organization gave thought to the ideas of giving power to the minister to remove a municipal council member or removing a member through a voter recall. AMO decided against recommending those options.
The province's survey closes on July 15.
Jill Dunlop, the associate minister of children and women's issues, is also holding roundtables with municipal stakeholders on how to strengthen accountability measures for council members.
Orléans Liberal MPP Stephen Blais, who once served on city council with Chiarelli, introduced a private member's bill in the legislature last month that would provide a way for the courts to decide if a seat should be vacated when a council member doesn't comply with workplace violence or harassment policies.