Windsor mayoral candidate Chris Holt has spoken out against strong mayor powers.
Bill 3, the "Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act 2022" was put into place by Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, and will go into effect on November 15.
These powers will give the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa the power to hire and fire department heads, single-handedly propose the municipal budget, and veto certain bylaws.
For the first time, earlier this week Ford mentioned Windsor while speaking about the bill. Mayors from municipalities across Ontario have stated that they would not use the new powers if it goes further than Toronto and Ottawa.
In a news statement released on Thursday, Holt announced that if elected at mayor he would not use the power, saying quote - "I am pledging to the residents of Windsor that I will not use those special powers. I also call on my opponent to pledge the same."
Drew Dilkens, incumbent mayor, says he will wait for more direction from the government about next steps, but as of now it has yet to be implemented.
"We'll follow the governments lead. We are creatures of the province and certainly we have to follow their lead like we do with everything else in the municipal act. But I haven't really studied the strong mayors powers because it doesn't apply to us, and it doesn't apply to any other municipality in the province of Ontario outside of Toronto and Ottawa after this election."
However, Windsor council deferred the motion back to administration to gather a report with more information before they made the decision to send a petition.
Dilkens says he wants to wait and see what happens when the report comes back.
"At the end of the day, I want to see the report that comes back from out administration. Councillor (Gary) Kaschak asked a very sensible question. And that was for administration to go back and tell council in written form, what does it mean? What are these powers? What does it mean and how would it work? And that's the report that we're waiting for from our administration."
He says good working relationships are extremely important between councillors and mayors, and that he's always had an open door for Windsor councillors to come to him.
"From day one of being elected, even as a city councillor, it is important for every city councillor to have interaction with the mayor, and with city administration. It's a two way system of sharing information to make sure that everyone is informed of how things work, what's possible, the art of what's possible in terms of process, in terms of the legislation under which we operate."
At the end of August, Kingsville council approved a notice of motion brought forward by councillor Kim DeYong to pass a petition opposing the bill.
During Wednesday night's Essex County Council meeting, council voted unanimously to reject the powers if offered to them.
-with files from AM800's Rob Hindi