There are more than 5,000 municipalities across Canada. That means there are probably around 40,000 municipal councillors, enough to make up a good-sized city on their own.
Naturally, there are bound to be some issues. Here are some highlights from just the past year.
In January, the province of Alberta launched a financial probe of Chestermere, just after firing the mayor, half of the city council and three senior city officials when an inspection found mismanagement issues.
The four politicians were also being sued by the city, which claimed they spent more than a half-million dollars on parties, alcohol and a private investigator to spy on a co-worker.
An official appointed by the province to oversee the troubled council reported he received little cooperation from city hall. He was even locked out of the washrooms.
Also in January, three of the seven Stephenville councillors resign with the mayor of the Newfoundland town being accused of bullying and creating a “toxic culture” by one of them. The town’s CAO, who took the job only a couple of months earlier, also quit.
In February, a Manitoba judge reinstated a rookie councillor in the Rural Municipality of Thompson who had been removed for missing meetings and blasted the actions of the reeve and fellow councillors for their lack of flexibility and poor communication.
When ward councillor had been elected in 2022, Thompson council alternated between daytime and evening meetings. Over the councillor's objections, the new council voted to hold only meetings that began at 9:30 a.m., including for committees that had previously met during lunch hour and in the late afternoon. She was unable to get time off from her job.
In March, Medicine Hat council cut both the mayor's power and pay after a third-party investigation found she breached the Alberta city’s code of conduct in her treatment of the city manager at a meeting the previous year.
The mayor was prohibited from meeting with the city manager without another council member present and banned from some areas of city hall. A judge later overturned most of the measures, including the 50 per cent cut in the mayor's pay.
Also in March, Renfrew council voted 5-1 asking the mayor of that town west of Ottawa to resign after a scathing report revealed a lack of oversight and improper handling of contracts for the expansion of a recreation centre that had seen costs double.
The third-party review found “unkept promises,” a “toxic environment,” unrealistic budgets and major concerns over “improper” procurement procedures.
In April, the Ontario government ousted the entire council of Black River-Matheson in northern Ontario on the grounds it hadn’t met in more than 60 days.
Three of the seven members of council had already resigned since the 2022 municipal election and another tried to quit but couldn’t since council wasn’t holding meetings by then and was unable to accept it.
Three Black River-Matheson councillors started boycotting meetings in an effort to force the province to dissolve the council and force a mass byelection. They got their wish.
Also in April, seven of the nine councillors in the Montreal suburb of Pointe-Claire asked the province to step in to “improve the general functioning of the city.” This followed several walkouts by councillors during meetings and requests for the mayor to resign.
The mayor accused the councillors of “juvenile tactics” and bullying, saying one council member had been texting his wife suggesting the mayor was having an affair.
In May, Kamloops, B.C., council voted 8-1 on a motion asking the city’s mayor to resign after a provincially appointed adviser issued a scathing report on how the mayor treated council and city staff.
The Kamloops mayor, who had filed a defamation suit against one of the councillors, refused so council passed another motion stopping him from being the city’s official spokesperson. Instead, the deputy mayor will handle those duties.
Also in May, another B.C. mayor, in Quesnel, was stripped of many of his duties in a unanimous vote by city council. This followed reports both he and his wife had given out copies of a controversial book about residential schools to members of the community.
Council removed the mayor from several committees, took away his travel budget and barred him from meeting with any external groups as a city representative.
Finally, in December, Pickering's mayor announced that the city just east of Toronto would be moving to online meetings only this year because of security threats to council and staff.
The mayor blamed one council member, who has been a lightning rod of controversy since being elected in 2022.
The rookie Pickering councillor has already received pay suspensions for “unacceptable behaviour,” including homophobic and racist remarks.
She also appeared on a podcast where the host called her council colleagues pedophiles, Nazis and fascists, suggesting they be removed by force while showing their contact information on the screen.
Barry Ward is a veteran editor and journalist who also served on Barrie city council for 22 years. His column appears regularly in BarrieToday.
