ISSUE 15 - Peel Region power shakeup?
Some updates on governance in Peel in Ontario and some BC updates
Welcome to another issue of #munipoli Matters, where we discuss all about municipal elections and the often unreported area of local government across Canada and beyond.
This is what I have for you this week: some really wonky governance stuff, a city councillor's retirement announcement that really encapsulates the state of politics overall today…and some movement in the BC municipal scene.
Is this powerful position getting ‘watered down’?
The position of Peel Regional Chair is quite a powerful one. Overseeing a region of 1.5 million residents, the Chair not only chairs the regional council meetings, but has to represent the Region of Peel as it’s Chief Executive Officer, with a budget of close to $1 million for their own salary, staff salaries as well as expenses.
Peel’s chief executive is selected at the start of each council term by their fellow councillors and serves for four years, but it looks like that structure may be changing. During the December 9, 2021 regional council meeting, a bylaw was passed to allow sitting councillors who aren’t serving as mayors to also serve as regional chair. The bylaw also created two vice chair positions to be held by members from the other two municipalities comprising Peel.
For example, if the chair is a Mississauga councillor, the two vice chairs would be from Brampton and Caledon. This new process does not exclude members of the public who aren’t council members from running for the position, but the chair would serve only two years instead of four.
The old process also meant if an incumbent councillor was picked as chair, their seat becomes vacant and would either be filled by another appointment from their local council, or through a costly by-election. The last time this happened was in 2014, when a Mississauga councillor was selected as chair right after getting reelected to city council. The subsequent by-election in 2015 cost roughly $500,000.
The previous provincial Liberal government had made amendments to allow for the regional chairs to be elected in Peel, York, Niagara and Muskoka regions but those plans were scrapped by Doug Ford in 2018.
Some benefits to this new arrangement cited by council proponents included ‘more accountability’ and cost savings. Mississauga councillor Carolyn Parrish noted that switching to an elected councillor doubling as chair would only lead to a $30,000 bump in their salary, as compared to the $200,000 for a full time chair.
A downside is the perception that the future regional chair may face conflicts with regards to what is in the interest of their personal constituency versus the wider interests of the region. This would not be as much of an issue in smaller county governments or more rural regions, whereby a chair or reeve is elected in this manner. But in a region with a population akin to a “metropolis”, balancing those interests would prove exceedingly difficult.
Until the pandemic hit, I don’t think people believed in the value of a shared public health service when it came to coordinating a response to COVID-19. Peel Public Health has done an exemplary job for the three cities which the region comprises. But if actual serious thought was put into the exercise, there should be a way to have a coordinated health body, as well as a shared police service, without a Peel Region.
Sudbury, Ontario
In other news, Greater Sudbury Ward 7 councillor Mike Jakubo announced he was not running for a third term this fall. Jakubo, elected in 2014 and reelected in 2018, first ran to replace an incumbent whom he considered part of the proverbial “old boys club”.
In 2014, Jakubo earned just over 50% of the vote compared to the incumbent’s 31%. Over the years, he worked on several infrastructure projects around Sudbury and cut the city’s operating costs, as well as tax freezes through attrition. In 2018, Jakubo was reelected with 51%.
The councillor cited personal family factors, such as his mother being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s before her passing in May 2021 and his father’s sudden death in April 2019, as reasons for his decision. “You can’t control what happens, you can’t always plan for what happens,” Jakubo said, adding that his time on city council meant he wasn’t able to see them as much as he might have otherwise been able to.
This, he said, contributed to his ultimate decision to not seek re-election. Plus, there have been some rather heated council meetings lately, which is becoming a growing trend across municipal governance in Ontario and beyond as of late.
Meanwhile, one guy who is planning to run for mayor in Sudbury may have already disqualified himself from running by a decal posted to his car advertising his candidacy. The decal says “Not Bigger, but Better / Mayor / Vote Bob Johnston 2022.”
According to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, “candidates cannot spend money, including their own money, on their campaign before the clerk receives their nomination form,” the spokesperson said to Sudbury.com in the article. Nominations for candidates don’t open until May 1.
Mr. Johnston, meanwhile, was rather defiant to the local media. “Whatever, write up a big story then,” he said. “Go ahead, go do what you’ve got to do. And don’t ever call me back, buddy, because I’ve got nothing to say to you,” adding that he “spent nothing” on the signage, despite paying $100 for the photo.
What’s happening on the BC municipal front?
Over on the West Coast, a pair of mayors are riding off into the sunset…while a provincial politician was being wooed to become one.
In New Westminster, Mayor Jonathan Cote is not running again after serving two terms as mayor and previously three terms as city councillor, citing family obligations, which is also a stark reality when it comes to being in public life. Cote is the chair of the Translink Mayor’s Council, which oversees transit policy in the Metro Vancouver region, and his departure is being seen as leaving a void in governance.
In Victoria, Mayor Lisa Helps announced back around October that she wouldn’t be seeking a third term. Helps was elected mayor in 2014 and reelected in 2018. The outgoing mayor said she was satisfied that during her tenure Victoria was able to put in protected bike lanes and that a city ‘climate plan’ was in place after she leaves office.
Meanwhile in Surrey, incumbent Doug McCallum is facing a challenge from current councillor and former ally Brenda Locke, who left the mayor’s municipal party in 2019 and launched a new party called Surrey Connect. But a new wrinkle almost came in the form of provincial labour minister and current NDP MLA Harry Bains (Surrey-Newton).
Bains has been the local MLA since 2005 and said he was being urged to enter the race. “People have asked me and that is where it is at,” he said. “Groups from different political spectrums, I might add, felt that I could represent Surrey in the mayor’s chair, in their eyes, really well. Certainly I respect that they have approached me and I’m flattered. I said I will consider and let them know once I’m in a position to tell them.”
Ultimately, Bains declined. Others such as fellow Surrey MLA Jinny Sims and Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal were also names floating around out there as potential candidates.
McCallum has been facing challenges over plans to establish a municipal police force, as Surrey is currently policed by the provincial wing of the RCMP. He was charged with public mischief over claims that someone ran over his foot while he was grocery shopping by a local resident complaining about the police reforms.
There was also a small piece about local elections in Prince George I am noting because incumbent councillor Garth Frizzell “declined to comment’ when asked if he was running for reelection, although four of his colleagues freely offered up responses to that question.
Frizzell has been on council since 2008 and ran as the federal Liberal candidate in the Cariboo-Prince George riding, placing a distant third. Considering that the incumbent mayor in the city has not declared his intentions, Frizzell could be keeping his powder dry.
Finally, in a follow up to a previous story about Wells, BC, the scheduled by elections to fill the position of mayor and councillors on February 5 has a full slate of candidates. A former councillor from nearby Quesnel and a former district councillor are running for mayor, while six candidates will vie for the three spots open.
Mail in voting will not be available to residents for the by-election, but the district posted on Facebook it could be in place for the upcoming scheduled municipal elections in October of 2022.
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