An Ottawa Liberal MPP is applauding the passage of a provincial bill that would allow municipal councillors who violate the code of conduct to be fired.
Bill 9, the Municipal Accountability Act, would allow municipalities to remove a councillor after a recommendation by the municipal integrity commissioner, approval from the integrity commissioner of Ontario, and a unanimous vote by council.
Orléans MPP Stephen Blais said Tuesday, when the bill passed third reading, that the province took an important step toward greater accountability.
“For years, victims, municipal staff, advocates and Integrity Commissioners warned that Ontario’s municipal accountability laws were broken. Today, Ontario finally acknowledged that reality,” Blais said in a news release.
Blais moved a version of the bill in the previous legislature, called the “Stopping Harassment and Abuse by Local Leaders Act,” but it failed on vote in 2023.
The legislation comes in response to findings from the City of Ottawa’s integrity commissioner that former city councillor Rick Chiarelli harassed and bullied female staff and had acted inappropriately towards women who worked in his office or had interviewed for a position in his office. Chiarelli refused to resign and remained a councillor until 2022, though council voted to dock his pay. He chose not to seek re-election.
“Women came forward with extraordinary courage. They exposed serious flaws in Ontario’s laws and forced this province to confront the reality that municipal accountability systems were failing victims,” Blais said.
Some former staffers who worked for Chiarelli spoke at a public hearing in Ottawa about the bill, saying the issue is non-partisan and about workplace rights and human rights.
According to the text of the bill, a municipal integrity commissioner may, after conducting an investigation, recommend to the provincial integrity commissioner that the subject councillor’s seat be declared vacant. If approved by the province, it would return to the municipal council for a vote, which must be unanimous, excluding the councillor who is the subject of the complaint, though he or she may take part in discussions prior to the vote.
Coun. Ariel Troster, who represents Somerset Ward in Ottawa, told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron she’s happy to see a mechanism to remove abusive councillors, but she says the bar is set very high.
“Ultimately the final decision on whether to remove a councillor from office who has been credibly found to have engaged in egregious conduct… it still needs a vote of 100 per cent of councillors and the mayor in order to proceed with removing them, not two thirds, and not 100 per cent of the people of the table, 100 per cent of councillors. So, all it would take is somebody deciding to abstain from the vote, get up, go to the bathroom, that vote would be void,” she said.
According to the text of the bill, the only members who may be excluded from taking part in the vote are the subject councillor, a member who is absent for pregnancy or parental leave, a member who received prior authorization to be absent by a council resolution, or a member who has a conflict of interest.
Troster said there is a culture of silence around abuse by powerful individuals.
“We know that the silence that protects abusive politicians is often the old boys club, it’s often because you have a friend across the table, all it would take is one friend. So I’m deeply worried about that, but I’m very interested to see how this plays out,” she said.
The bill must still come before the Lieutenant Governor for Royal Assent.
Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack says he hopes to have the new rules in place ahead of the October municipal elections.
With files from The Canadian Press
