GIVE IT
BACK.
Since 1 May 2025 the Mayor of Collingwood has been able to do seven things alone: appoint the top staff member, set how the Town is organised, hire and fire department heads, create committees, name who chairs them, write the budget, and veto by-laws. I did not ask for those powers and I do not think a mayor should keep them.
A mayor is one vote on a council of nine. Concentrating hiring, structure and the budget in one office does not make a town better governed — it makes it dependent on one person being right. I would rather be held to a plan in public than be able to impose one.
So on my first day I would sign the decisions that hand these powers back, and publish them the same day.
What I would do
- Delegate appointing the CAO to CouncilThe Act allows this power to be delegated to Council, and in Collingwood it has not been. The CAO runs the Town and answers for it. Who holds that job should be decided by the whole Council, in public — not by one person.
- Delegate committees and their chairs to CouncilWho sits on which committee, and who chairs it, is how a council organises its own work. It should be Council’s to decide, as it was before May 2025.
- Leave the staffing chain where it belongsIn May 2025 the power to organise staff, and to hire and fire department heads, was handed to the Chief Administrative Officer. That is the right home for it. That is what a CAO is for. I would keep that delegation in place rather than pull it back into the Mayor’s office.
- Not use the vetoThe Act leaves it entirely to the head of council whether to veto a by-law. I would not. If I cannot persuade five of nine people, the answer is to make a better argument, not to overrule the vote.
- Bring the budget through CouncilThe budget power cannot be delegated away. What a mayor can do is use it the way budgets were always built here. Put it to Council. Let Council change it. Pass it without vetoing their changes. That is how I would use it.
- Publish every mayoral decision in plain languageThe Act already requires these decisions to be in writing and public. I would publish each one with a sentence saying what it does and why, on the day it is signed.
What the powers actually are
Part VI.1 of the Municipal Act gives the head of council of a designated municipality powers that other members of council do not have. Collingwood was designated on 1 May 2025. These are them.
- Appoint the CAO
- May be delegated to Council. In Collingwood it has not been.
- Determine the organizational structure
- May be delegated to Council or to the CAO. Delegated to the CAO in May 2025.
- Hire and dismiss division heads
- May be delegated to Council or to the CAO. Delegated to the CAO in May 2025.
- Create committees and appoint their chairs
- May be delegated to Council. In Collingwood it has not been.
- Propose the budget
- Council may amend it, the Mayor may veto those amendments, and Council may override with two thirds. Not delegable.
- Veto certain by-laws
- Where the Mayor believes a by-law could interfere with a provincial priority. Not delegable, and entirely at the Mayor’s discretion.
- Direct staff in writing
- In writing, and public.
Municipal Act, 2001, Part VI.1; Ontario’s Municipal Councillors’ Guide, section 10; Town of Collingwood, Strong Mayor Powers
What has been done so far
On 12 May 2025 Mayor Yvonne Hamlin signed two decisions. MDE-2025-01 delegated the power to determine the Town’s organizational structure to the Chief Administrative Officer. MDE-2025-02 delegated the power to hire, dismiss and exercise other employment powers over division heads, also to the Chief Administrative Officer. Both were made under section 284.13(1) of the Act and both remain in effect.
Town of Collingwood, published mayoral decisions MDE-2025-01 and MDE-2025-02, 12 May 2025
That was the right call on staffing: day-to-day management of employees belongs with the CAO, not with a politician. What it does not do is return anything to Council. Appointing the CAO, and creating committees and naming their chairs, are both delegable to Council and both still sit with the Mayor. Those are the ones I would hand back.
Two of these cannot be given away. The law does not let a mayor hand back the budget power or the veto. So no mayor can promise to be rid of them. What a mayor can promise is how they will use them. A promise not to veto, and to pass the budget Council amends, is one you can check every single time.
If I ever use a power on this page in a way this page says I would not, the decision will have a number and a date. Point at it and hold me to it.