TORONTO—The province’s largest union has condemned the Ford government’s autocratic appointment of eight Conservative insiders as “strong chairs” of councils in eight upper-tier municipalities: the regions of Durham, Halton, Niagara, Peel, and Waterloo and in York, Muskoka, and Simcoe counties.
“Ford is riding roughshod over our democracy so he and his Conservatives can implement an agenda that Ontarians categorically reject,” said Yolanda McClean, president of CUPE Ontario. “He has granted sweeping authority to his own yes-persons so he can override the decisions of democratically elected councillors and the wishes of local residents.
“Now a council-passed moratorium on the construction of AI data centres can be overturned. Our water and wastewater infrastructure can be privatized. Our environmental protections risk being swept aside. All thanks to one-person rule that Premier Ford has instituted.”
McClean described the appointment of heads of council as a direct assault on democracy in Ontario, warning that “CUPE Ontario members, who deliver the public services these councils govern, will resist this attempt to undermine public control and ownership.”
Under the Conservatives’ Better Regional Government Act, the eight appointed chairs will exercise powers mirroring the government’s strong-mayor regime, meaning they can veto council decisions that stand in the way of Ford government priorities.
“The Ford Conservatives have already strengthened their own hand by by slashing council sizes, just as they have by putting various school boards under administration,” said Krista Laing, chair of CUPE Ontario’s municipal workers’ committee and a newly elected trustee for Durham District School Board.
“Yet regional governments are responsible for delivering vital public services in our communities. The people who rely on those services also fund them and work to deliver them. They deserve a say in who governs them.”
The Ford government has already passed legislation that can force municipalities to transfer publicly owned water and wastewater infrastructure to for-profit corporations. CUPE Ontario has flagged these laws, in conjunction with legal experts, as a path to water privatization.
“Now the Conservatives have compliant, unelected chairs who can push that agenda through council over the objections of resident and their elected representatives,” said McClean. “Public accountability helps keep our communities safe and liveable. Decisions about who owns and operates our public services belong to the people; the councils they elect are accountable to them – not partisan government appointees.”
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