Halifax mayor says 'change is needed' at city hall, would welcome strong mayor powers

The mayor of Halifax says strong mayor powers could improve the current system that is slowing progress on issues he was elected to tackle, but one political expert says he has yet to see a good argument for such a "dramatic change."

Rumours have swirled for months that the province may be considering following the lead of Ontario on strong mayor powers for Halifax.

Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore said Tuesday that he has not formally requested such powers, but he has had "informal conversations" with the PC government about how they share priorities on affordability, housing, traffic congestion and fiscal restraint.

Fillmore said any alterations to Halifax's governance system would require provincial legislation, and "I think that some change is needed."

"The system that we are currently working with … is stopping the residents from seeing the agenda that they voted for be realized," Fillmore told reporters outside a council meeting.

"I didn't fully understand the barriers to fulfilling the mandate that I was elected to deliver until after I was in the chair."

Fillmore was a Halifax municipal planner for years before he was elected as the city's MP in 2015. He was elected mayor in October 2024.

In Nova Scotia, mayors have one vote around a council table. The Ontario model allows mayors to make decisions without the majority of council, and hire and fire municipal chief administrative officers and department heads. Strong mayors also table their city's budget, instead of council.

Fillmore said he was most concerned about how the power in the municipal organization is "concentrated with an unelected CAO," and the length of time it can take for council to consider staff reports and then give a CAO direction.

"There is no direct line of accountability from the voter to the actions that we take in the city right now," he said.

CAOs are the top staff members in a municipality and must carry out council's specific requests and direction, and act under policies set by a council. They also provide a wide range of expert advice, and if a council is unhappy with their performance, the group can vote to remove them.

Fillmore did not offer any examples of how Halifax CAO Cathie O'Toole has slowed down council's priorities or his own.

Kim Ramsay, president of the Association of Municipal Administrators Nova Scotia and CAO of the District of East Hants, said she could not weigh in on Fillmore's comments specifically. But she said the direct connection between a CAO and the public is council, "because council decides what gets done and what doesn't get done."

Ramsay said the politicization of senior staff that has happened in Ontario, where mayors can hire and fire staff, would "set Nova Scotia back decades" with municipal administration.

"We've worked really hard to make sure that there's independence in municipal administration. So this, the CAO being a non-partisan expert … is key to how municipalities run," Ramsay said.

She added that she has heard concerns from colleagues in Ontario that councils are now only getting "exactly what the mayor wants them to get," because anything going against a mayor's priorities could see them fired.

"No one is stepping forward to take those volatile roles of the CAO or senior leaders, and it's becoming a problem," Ramsay said.

Tom Urbaniak, political science professor at Cape Breton University, said he has yet to see a compelling reason for such a "dramatic change" in municipal democracy. 

"It sounds like a relatively inexperienced mayor jumping to the conclusion that this could somehow make his workload lighter. And if we study mayors in other jurisdictions, this does not really hold true," Urbaniak said Wednesday.

He said Ontario municipalities are not seeing housing being built much faster, as Premier Doug Ford hoped would happen with strong mayor legislation, or other "magical solutions" to problems.

"You're creating a lot of tension between mayors and councils, more conflict than you see now. You politicize the public service, which will make it less effective in some cases. So you may actually slow down progress," Urbaniak said.

Although strong mayor powers were not on the table during last year's municipal election, Fillmore said Tuesday that his "fairly resounding victory" gave him a strong mandate on making decisions around his platform issues of fiscal responsibility, affordability and congestion. 

Fillmore was elected with 52,618 ballots in his favour, representing just 15 per cent of the more than 336,400 eligible Halifax voters. There was a 36 per cent voter turnout for the mayoral race.

Besides a "relatively weak mandate," Urbaniak said Fillmore's argument is not comparing apples to apples.

"Because now we're asking that the role be changed … in a very significant way. And that's what justifies a mature and expansive public conversation, if we're to be true to our democratic principles."

Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr said earlier this year, and again recently, that the province had no specific plans on bringing in such powers, but did not rule them out.

On Thursday, regional council will debate Coun. Sam Austin's motion asking the province to consult with municipalities before bringing in such powers.

It also requests a staff report about how such powers are used elsewhere in Canada and what lessons can be learned from that experience.