Ford gives Crate more power
But drags feet on helping hospital ER department pay doctors
Trent Hills is one of 169 municipalities that will see its mayor gain more powers on May 1 under legislation announced by the province.
Mayors in neighbouring Brighton, Cobourg, and Port Hope will also get more clout under the strong mayors plan, a news release says. The full list is here.
I asked Mayor Bob Crate what he thought of his new powers and whether he would use them. He responded only that the topic will be discussed by council.
The goal of the additional powers is to let mayors push through development plans and ensure more housing and infrastructure is built.
"Heads of Council are key partners in our efforts to build homes and infrastructure across the province,” said Rob Flack, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. "By extending strong mayor powers to these additional municipalities, we are providing mayors every tool at our disposal to empower them to get homes and infrastructure built faster. Mayors know their municipalities best, and we support them in taking bold actions for their communities.”
Ontario's strong mayor powers, initially introduced for Toronto and Ottawa in 2022, have been gradually rolled out across the province. The province currently has 47 municipalities with these enhanced powers.
Under the legislation, strong mayors can:
Appoint the municipality’s chief administrative officer.
Hire some municipal department heads and establish and re-organize departments.
Create council committees, assign their functions, and appoint the chairs and vice-chairs of committees.
Propose the municipal budget, which would be subject to council amendments and a separate veto and council override process.
Propose certain municipal by-laws if the mayor believes that the proposed by-law could advance a provincial priority identified in regulation. Council can pass these by-laws if more than one-third of all council members vote in favour.
Veto certain by-laws if the mayor believes that all or part of the by-law could potentially interfere with a provincial priority.
Red tape and disagreements about plans have certainly slowed developments in some cities, but they are not a big problem here, from what I have seen in the past year. Development has been slow because the companies involved don’t build homes because they are needed, they build them when they believe the market is hot and higher profits are possible. Otherwise, approved subdivisions sit untouched for decades.
No strong mayor will be able to change that, unless they get the money to build public housing. I’ll let you know what the councillors think about the topic when it gets discussed.
Hospitals await ER staffing decision
On the other hand, the province isn’t doing anything to create stronger hospital CEOs or even a strong health minister.
Campbellford Memorial Hospital is one of dozens of rural and northern hospitals that has been hit by the end of a temporary program that paid emergency room doctors extra to fill shifts in those communities. That’s one reason that we often have doctors from Ottawa or Toronto working in the ER here.
But a program that was set up during the pandemic concluded on March 31, leaving doctors unsure how much they will make for current shifts and causing uncertainty about how many shifts they will agree to fill.
The Ontario Medical Association’s emergency medicine section chair suggested in a recent memo to emergency department leads that staff at several hospitals have been expressing concerns about the current limbo, The Canadian Press reports.
“The section is acutely aware of the impact the end of this program will have on staffing stability of emergency departments across the province,” Angela Marrocco wrote.
“We have done everything we can to emphasize this reality to the Ministry of Health,” she wrote.
The ministry also offers an Emergency Department Locum Program, but there are different criteria, and it is mostly for last-minute needs.
Campbellford Memorial relies on both the Temporary Locum Program and the Emergency Department Locum Program to help staff its Emergency Department, says Peter Mitchell, Communications & Community Relations Manager.
“While we’ve done a fantastic job recruiting emergency department locum physicians to our hospital over the past year, the Temporary Locum Incentive Program remains an essential part of our ability to provide consistent emergency care,” he says.
“We are hopeful that the ministry’s incentive program, whether it be a continuation of the temporary program or a permanent replacement, will remain in place to support hospitals like ours, which continue to face challenges related to physician recruitment and retention,” Mitchell says.
The Temporary Locum Program has been extended several times, in at least one case months after it had expired.
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Congratulations to Bob. Hope he puts it to use to streamline municipal departments. For instances the money to be wasted on the parking and signage on municipal streets would be a good place to start. The recent meeting with two planners and staff to investigate along with hiring a student is a good example. Imagine a suggestion to bring back parking meters to Campbellford.