Ford dashes calls for tougher penalties for councillors

Premier Doug Ford appears to have dashed hopes for tougher penalties for municipal councillors who are found to have harassed or abused employees — or are guilty of other misbehaviours.

“Every city has their integrity commissioner and they have the powers to do what they need to do if someone misbehaves, if you want to call it that. They can make their decisions,” Ford said Thursday.

Earlier this month, Ottawa city council added its support to a motion by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario urging the province to beef up the law by updating municipal codes of conduct, enacting new flexible penalties and allowing municipalities to ask the courts to remove a councillor if that is recommended by the integrity commissioner.

The harshest penalty a council can impose under current law is a 90-day suspension without pay for each infraction. That's what Ottawa council did to former councillor Rick Chiarelli after the integrity commissioner found he had sexually harassed multiple female staff members. In all, Chiarelli was suspended for a total of 450 days and forfeited pay worth $132,000. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Orléans MPP Stephen Blais, a former Ottawa city councillor who served alongside Chiarelli, has twice brought a private member's bill to Queen's Park that would have toughened the penalties. Both times, the Conservative government voted it down.

“Ultimately if they want to remove someone, it's the people,” Ford said Thursday. “That's why we have elections every four years. People either like you or they don't like you. If they like you, they'll give you another chance at it. If they don't like you, well, you're going to be sitting on the bench somewhere. But it's the people who are going to decide.”

The premier's statement appeared to contradict what Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra said in February after Blais' bill was defeated for a second time. Callandra said the government was working on its own legislation that would likely be presented to the legislature before the summer break.

“It is a very important piece of legislation that has to be constitutional (and) that has to actually achieve the results that I think that everybody's asking for,” Calandra told reporters.

Thursday's statement by the premier disappointed Emily Mcintosh of the group Women of Ontario Say No, which has advocated for tougher penalties. She called Ford's response “incredibly dismissive.”

“An integrity commissioner can do an investigation, they can substantiate a claim, they can make recommendations on remedial action, but there's no actual incentive for the person who did misconduct to even do the most rudimentary remedial action,” Mcintosh said.

“We cannot have people in positions of power perpetrating harassment that in any other workplace would be considered unacceptable.”

Ottawa was one of more than 200 Ontario municipalities to have backed AMO'S call for tougher penalties, she said.

“There is a real disconnect between what the premier is saying and the lived experience of people in communities and councillors,” Mcintosh said.

“In order to know about these things, victims have to come forward. And in order for victims to come forward, they have to feel that the action will be dealt with. Otherwise, there is no incentive.”