09-13-2023, 07:00 AM
(09-12-2023, 05:26 PM)timc Wrote: My understanding of the powers is that they are only applicable in ways that the province wants things to go anyway. Maybe I'm wrong about that?
Example: mayor uses strong mayor powers to rezone a bunch of land from agricultural to single-family homes. Clearly a bad thing, even though in the short term it gives developers more places to build homes. If on the other hand the mayor used the strong mayor powers to upzone all single-family areas to medium density, that might actually accomplish something positive.
Note that I don’t know exactly what the powers allow, so the above examples might not be realistic. But the point is that the powers can be abused. On the other hand, there is no reason to think that the current allocation of powers between Council and Mayor is the best possible allocation, so it is possible that giving the mayors some additional powers might be a good thing.