Municipal Act Amendments Welcome, but Integrity Commissioners’ Larger Role Questioned
Bill 68: Plaudits and Problems
Municipal Act Amendments Welcome, but Integrity Commissioners’ Larger Role Questioned
By Barry Horeczy
The increased role of integrity commissioners in Bill 68, Modernizing Ontario’ s Municipal Legislation Act, 2016, is raising both praise and concern among stakeholders.
The bill, introduced by the Ontario government on Nov. 16, is currently in Second Reading debate Jeffrey Abrams at Queen’ s Park. Every five years, the provincial government is required to review the Municipal Act, which governs the province’ s 444 municipalities.
“ Increasing the role of integrity commissioners should not have the unintended consequence of diminishing the perception of integrity that the public has in their municipal councils,” said Jeffrey A. Abrams, chair of AMCTO’ s Municipal Act review team and member of the association’ s Legislation & Policy Advisory Group.
“ The role of the integrity commissioner should be mostly advisory and educational, and it should never be the case that they be treated as the only municipal official committed to ensuring that municipal affairs are carried out with integrity and transparency. That is a shared responsibility of integrity commissioners, councillors, the heads of councils, municipal staff( such as the CAO and indeed the Clerk) and others.”
A Ministry of Municipal Affairs statement insisted it sees municipalities as accountable and responsible governments.
“ The proposals to ensure every municipality has a code of conduct and provides access to an integrity commissioner would promote a more consistent level of accountability across our local governments,” the statement said.
“ The proposed changes aim to make the rules clearer, more effective and responsive to local needs. Accountability and transparency is a key foundation of any government, and
12 Q1 2017 www. amcto. com