The mayor of Kingsville states he's against the strong mayor powers.
Council met Monday evening and a notice of motion was presented by councillor Tony Gaffan to oppose the use of strong mayor powers, and requested that a letter be sent to the province stating Kingsville would like to be removed from the list of approved municipalities.
Earlier this month, the Ontario government announced the expansion of strong mayor powers to leaders in 169 more municipalities. These powers would give mayors the ability to override some council decisions, fire and hire senior staff, veto bylaws among more.
On April 11, Kingsville mayor Dennis Rogers posted to YouTube expressing his concerns with these powers - stating that it is "too much power for one person".
"I believe in democracy. I believe that councillors, they have a vote. I believe that they have a voice," Rogers said in the video.
During Monday's meeting, a number of councillors thanked Rogers for his stance on this, and expressed their concerns with these powers. The motion to be removed was approved by council.
Councillor Tony Gaffan says residents of all ages have expressed their concerns.
"We can clearly see that it's not working in a lot of the larger municipalities. So I had to do what needed to be done for the community, and for our constituents to know that this is not a tool in the toolbox that should ever exist."
Deputy mayor Kimberly DeYong says this would be an extreme change to democratic practices.
"I know that there are other municipalities moving almost identical wording. At this time, I would expect 169 resolutions of opposition were coming forward to Doug Ford. I'm not sure that he cares what we think, but he has backtracked on things before."
Councillor Larry Patterson took the time to thank the mayor for this decision.
"We've taken a little bit of heat as council, and I know our mayor is taking quite a bit of heat. I can assure you from day one, when this first came out, I did consult our mayor and his opinion was 'no way, no how, no way'."
A number of other mayors in the region have outlined similar plans, including Amherstburg council opposing the expansion on Monday night.
Essex mayor Sherry Bondy has stated she will request to opt-out.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens was granted strong mayor powers in 2023 and has used them dozens of times.
In the fall of 2023, Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff was granted the powers and sent two letters to the province that he did not want them, however the municipality was still added to the legislation.