A City of Windsor councillor is disappointed after his motion was shot down.
Ward 4 Councillor, Chris Holt, presented a motion during Monday night's meeting to petition the Government of Ontario's Bill 3.
The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing introduced Bill 3 which is described as "An Act to amend various statutes with respect to special powers and duties of heads of council".
The bill was passed for Toronto and Ottawa, however the Ontario government is looking to expand it to include all other municipalities.
Holt says he was looking to follow Kingsville's steps in sending the petition. On August 30, a notice of motion brought forward by councillor Kim DeYong was passed.
However, Windsor council deferred the motion back to administration to gather a report with more information on the bill before they make the decision to send a petition.
He says he was hoping council would see that the bill is not beneficial to Windsor.
"I felt that my councillor colleagues would see the benefit of putting forward a motion like this. It really benefits nobody, especially city councillors. It takes away their power to represent their constituents the way need to be taken care of. And really it consolidates a lot more power into the mayor's office."
He says he commends the Town of Kingsville for doing what the City of Windsor 'couldn't do'.
"I give the town of Kingsville credit, they stood up to some bully tactics by the Premier, and said 'no, we are going to represent our constituents to the best of our ability, and you can not take that power away from us'."
Holt is running for Windsor Mayor in the upcoming municipal election, and says if he's elected, he will not be using the strong mayor powers.
"I will not be vetoing democratic decisions of council, I will not be forcing the corporate leadership team on them, I will not be forcing them to decide on a budget that I brought forward and I was the sole designer of. This is a democracy, and we really do need to work together."
On September 8, the strong mayors legislation was passed. Premier Doug Ford said the strong mayor systems will let municipal leaders reduce timelines for development, standardize processes and address local barriers to increasing housing supply.
The premier has previously said two-thirds of a council would be able to overrule a mayor under such a system.