Strong Mayor Powers: Lower Costs, Better Services, Your Voice

Budget, records and resident input

Resident need. Property taxes should support useful services at a cost households can afford. Roads, winter maintenance, transit and public spaces matter in everyday life, and each service should have a clear connection between its cost, funding, result and available alternatives.

Legal responsibility. Section 284.16 of the Municipal Act, 2001 and section 7 of Ontario Regulation 530/22 assign the Mayor responsibility for preparing and proposing the municipal budget and making it available on the statutory timetable. Mayor Zvorygin would answer publicly for its assumptions, choices and results.

Planned use of the powers. Under section 284.3, written directions connected to Part VI.1 budget duties would obtain spending and revenue records, contracts, staffing costs, debt, reserves and historical results in usable digital formats. Records eligible for release would be published progressively as they become available and privacy and confidentiality checks are completed. Modern software and financial analysis would connect costs with services, recurring expenses and possible savings.

Residents could examine the records, ask questions and propose better repair approaches, local suppliers, service changes or savings while decisions are being developed. The Public Document Forum would support that exchange, while the Verified Savings Ledger would show what changed, implementation costs, recurring results and service effects. The Transparency Plan and working budget scenario provide the supporting financial detail. Council would retain its statutory amendment and override role.

A City Hall that is easier to deal with

Resident need. Residents should receive clear answers, know who is responsible and have routine issues resolved promptly. Service costs and results should remain visible as the organization improves.

Organizational responsibility. Section 284.6 of the Municipal Act assigns the Mayor responsibility for municipal organizational structure within its statutory limits. The first year would establish and publish a reliable baseline before major changes: seasonal workloads, service demand, staffing capacity, costs, response and completion times, backlogs, handoffs, repeated work, vacancies, turnover, overtime and consultants.

The Staffing and Administration Plan proposes three administrative layers: City Manager, functional working heads, and professional and administrative staff. The Mayor would assess that direction against the published baseline, employee experience and resident feedback. Major changes would include a public explanation of the problem, expected benefits, transition costs and measures of success.

Structural changes would proceed through vacancies, attrition, succession and future hiring, preserving current employee salaries under the staff plan's compensation commitments. Essential services, urgent repairs and statutory duties would continue. Salaries above the adopted ranges would be red-circled, and eligible positions above those ranges would receive no automatic inflation-adjusted increase within the authority available to the Mayor; future increases would require a documented reason. Existing contractual and collective-agreement commitments would be honoured through their current terms. The Verified Savings Ledger would record implementation dates, costs, recurring results and service effects.

A City Manager accountable for follow-through

Section 284.5 assigns the municipality's powers under section 229 concerning the chief administrative officer to the Mayor. The Mayor would publish expectations for City Manager leadership, assess follow-through and make future appointments through a fair, qualified process. Residents would see organizational and management costs, service performance, implementation progress and corrective action, with confidential personnel information handled under privacy law.

The compensation framework preserves the six-times-local-income base-salary ceiling for the City Manager. Pension, benefits, payroll charges and other employer costs would be reported separately from base salary.

Intended use of strong-mayor powers

A mayor prepared to take responsibility

Resident need. The mayor must be ready to understand public finances, make choices under limits and explain the result.

What Andrii brings. Andrii runs two profitable businesses, Lyis Forestry, his plant-nursery farm, and LiberIT, his information-technology business. He has served as a federal campaign treasurer and serves as Grey Bruce Makerspace treasurer. He also brings technical skills and years of engagement with municipal and County government.

Running profitable businesses requires balancing revenue, expenses, pricing, purchasing, cash flow, taxes, risk and investments whose results may take time to appear. Treasurer responsibilities add budget preparation, financial reporting, questions from a governing board and regulated compliance. Programming and IT work add practical skills for examining large amounts of information, comparing scenarios, finding duplication and making complex evidence understandable.

How residents can check. Municipal government serves public purposes. This transferable discipline supports the Mayor's responsibility for preparing and proposing Owen Sound's budget by clarifying costs, priorities, essential capacity, alternatives and useful results. The mayoral responsibilities comparison and full experience article provide more detail.

Time to understand and influence decisions

Resident need. You should have enough time and information to understand a proposal, ask useful questions and bring forward alternatives while changes are still possible.

Local Representatives close to home

The Mayor would use budget and organizational responsibilities to help establish the Local Representative system as elected offices in resident-governed neighbourhood associations, giving residents a nearby person who can listen, organize neighbours and follow concerns through City Hall.

Funding would be included in the proposed budget, and the Mayor would use the organizational authority available under law to establish appropriate administrative support. The neighbourhood selection process, accountability rules and geographic councillor assignments would be brought before Council for adoption.

Residents would elect their Local Representative through an accessible annual association election, and the City would provide a clear path for their concerns and ideas to receive attention.

What the Mayor would do. Budget evidence would be made available early, resident contributions would be considered and the choices that follow would be explained. The Mayor would support the three channels in the Open Council Communication plan: a Public Council Forum for ordinary questions and proposals, public written Council sessions for transparent deliberation through the applicable legal framework, and private correspondence for sensitive matters.

How residents can participate. Residents could raise questions, add local knowledge and follow a proposal before a formal vote. The Public Document Forum and Open Council Communication plan would provide practical channels for questions, proposals, transparent deliberation and sensitive correspondence. Formal meetings, public notice, motions, amendments, recorded votes and final decisions would follow the legal framework described in How the law works below.

Governing through ordinary Council majorities

Owen Sound has nine members of Council, so an ordinary majority requires five votes. The plan is to seek at least five votes for every proposal brought forward.

The budget-amendment veto, provincial-priority bylaw veto and special provincial-priority route requiring more than one-third support have no planned use. Committee organization and chair selection would remain with Council through delegation of the applicable special powers.

This approach preserves clear mayoral responsibility for preparing the budget, obtaining the information required to understand it, organizing City Hall and holding senior leadership accountable. Council decisions would continue through ordinary majority support, informed by early public information, resident participation and constructive deliberation.

How the law works

Owen Sound was designated a strong-mayor municipality on May 1, 2025. Part VI.1 of Ontario's Municipal Act, 2001 adds duties and powers to the ordinary role of head of Council. The province's Ontario Municipal Councillor's Guide provides a plain-language overview.

Budget and administration

Under section 284.16, the head of Council must prepare and propose the municipal budget. Section 7 of Ontario Regulation 530/22 sets the annual timetable, including providing the proposed budget to Council and the Clerk and making it available to the public by February 1. The duty to prepare and propose the budget remains with the mayor. If the statutory deadline arrives without a proposed budget, Council prepares and adopts it. Council has a statutory review period in which it may amend the proposal; the mayor may veto a Council amendment through the written statutory process, and Council may override that veto through the required two-thirds vote.

Ordinary records access follows the City's administrative and disclosure processes. Section 284.3 provides a written-direction power connected to the head of Council's powers and duties under Part VI.1. It permits written directions to municipal employees to undertake related research and provide advice, or to carry out related duties including implementing decisions under that Part. The plan would use this authority to obtain research, advice and implementation connected to Part VI.1 responsibilities. Section 284.4 requires applicable strong-mayor powers and duties to be exercised in writing and sets public-availability requirements, and Ontario Regulation 530/22 requires a record of a staff direction to be provided to the Clerk and City Manager by the next business day.

Sections 225 and 226.1 describe the mayor as head of Council and municipal chief executive officer. Part VI.1 also provides powers concerning senior administration, organizational structure, Council-only committees, written directions to municipal employees and provincial-priority matters. Sections 284.5 and 284.6 assign the relevant City Manager and organizational-structure powers to the head of Council within the statutory exclusions, delegation rules and other law. Day-to-day administration is carried out by the City Manager and staff.

The Mayor must exercise the applicable strong-mayor powers in writing and make those decisions available to the public. The maximum information legally available would be published, with protected records handled under the applicable law, including the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The City's strong-mayor record publishes local decisions and directions.

Open meetings and communication

Sections 238 and 239 of the Municipal Act, 2001, the City's procedure by-law and related law govern Council meetings and closed-session exceptions. Public written communication can provide information before a meeting. Council deliberations covered by the open-meeting rules would take place in properly convened public meetings. Where a quorum discusses or deals with a matter in a way that materially advances Council business or decision-making, the applicable meeting requirements govern.

Vetoes and the one-third support route

The budget-amendment veto is legally available for a Council amendment during the statutory budget process. A provincial-priority bylaw veto is legally available for prescribed bylaws under the Municipal Act, the Planning Act, the Development Charges Act or the City of Toronto Act when the head of Council is of the opinion that all or part of the bylaw could potentially interfere with a prescribed provincial priority. It requires written reasons and follows separate statutory deadlines. The plan expects both veto powers to remain unused.

Law also provides a separate route for the head of Council to propose certain bylaws advancing a prescribed provincial priority. Such a bylaw can pass when more than one-third of all Council members vote in favour. With nine members, more than one-third means four supporting votes, and the Mayor may vote. This route has its own statutory purpose and applies to the prescribed provincial-priority bylaws under the applicable notice, consultation and statutory requirements. The plan expects any proposal to earn an ordinary Council majority of five votes.

Council continues to govern collectively, with staff expertise, professional authority, procurement requirements, public consultation and approvals required under other law integrated into the process.