Chianello: How to fire bad councillors — Ontario isn't getting it right
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Yes, people were appalled by the stories: disturbing accounts from women who said they were told by Chiarelli not to wear bras to public events, were given flimsy clothing to wear, and taken to bars to 'recruit' men as volunteers. But what stunned people even more was the realization that nothing could be done to remove Chiarelli from office. Not by the province. Not by the public. Not even after multiple damning reports from both the city's former and current integrity commissioners.
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And that disbelief never really went away.
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Over the past five years, I've heard from dozens of people — victims, staffers, elected officials, voters — all asking the same question: how is it possible that an elected official can be found to have harassed or harmed others in the workplace, and still keep their job?
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Now, the province has finally responded — in theory.
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This spring, Ontario's Progressive Conservative government introduced Bill 9, the Municipal Accountability Act, 2025, which passed second reading last month. On paper, it's the government's answer to calls from multiple quarters for a legal mechanism to remove municipal councillors from office for egregious misconduct.
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Bill 9 does offer a few welcome changes. It mandates training for councillors on their codes of conduct. It gives the province authority to impose those codes if municipalities fall short. And it adds oversight to ensure municipal integrity commissioners don't have conflicts of interest — a needed step, especially after revelations by CBC Ottawa that some commissioners were also serving as their municipality's lawyer, a conflict the Ontario ombudsman rightly flagged as problematic.
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But on the core issue — the ability to remove a council member who has seriously violated the code of conduct — Bill 9 falls short. In fact, it sets up a process so convoluted and politicized that it's hard to imagine it ever being used successfully.
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Here's how it would work.
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If a local integrity commissioner finds that a councillor's misconduct caused harm to someone's health, safety or well-being — and potentially if the behaviour was repeated — they can recommend removal from office. That recommendation then goes to Ontario's Integrity Commissioner, who launches a second full inquiry.
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If the provincial commissioner agrees the councillor should be removed, they make a recommendation. But that recommendation doesn't trigger removal.
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Instead, it's sent back to the councillor's own colleagues — their fellow council members — who must vote unanimously to remove them from office within 30 days. And every single councillor must be present for the vote to count. If someone is sick, on vacation, or slinks off to the washroom, the vote fails. And if council doesn't hold a vote within that 30-day deadline, Bill 9 is silent on what happens next.
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CBC
8 hours ago
- CBC
Manitoba political commentator Paul Thomas to retire after more than 50 years of punditry
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"I know, in my opinion — having studied premiers from the past and having known all of them since the Duff Roblin era — that he was the best by far," Thomas told host Marcy Markusa in a Wednesday morning interview on CBC Manitoba's Information Radio. Roblin served as Manitoba's 14th premier, from 1958 to 1967, leading the charge to create the Red River Floodway around Winnipeg. Before Roblin's election, the Manitoba government played a "very limited role" in the province, Thomas said, and the province was behind compared to some other jurisdictions in terms of education, social services and housing policy. In contrast, Roblin led a "very active government," and he was willing to run up deficits and then raise taxes, Thomas said. "It was sort of a quiet revolution, Manitoba style," he said. "He was very pragmatic. He wasn't a strongly ideological conservative, so that's why I have such great respect for him." Manitoba's greatest premiers were those who took a more pragmatic approach, he said. "Give me a government that's affordable and show me that the government works — that's the best approach that's prevailed in Manitoba [and has] led to the most success." Conversely, Thomas said Manitoba's most polarizing premier was Progressive Conservative Brian Pallister, who served as the province's 22nd premier from 2016 to 2021. He described Pallister as "the most ideological" of Manitoba's premiers. Pallister was so committed to an agenda of limited government, lower taxes, deregulation and privatization that Thomas said he "antagonized a lot of people." "Manitobans want good government and they want affordable government, but they believe that there's a positive role for government," Thomas said. "He seemed to bring the view that government was a problem, and he got caught by the pandemic and the economic slowdown at a time when he was trying to curb spending." Pallister stepped down as premier as party support plummeted in the polls, after widely condemned comments about Canada's history and colonization. His decisions as leader during the COVID-19 pandemic and plans to eliminate school boards also brought criticism. Regardless of political stripe, Thomas said he's proud to have served as a nonpartisan "sounding board" for Manitoba's premiers since the 1960s. "Unfortunately today, people in public life don't get the respect they deserve, both on the political side, even on the administrative or public service side," he said. "That's an unfortunate trend that's developed over my lifetime of commentary." The most impactful political moment that he witnessed was Canada's Constitutional crises involving the Charlottetown and Meech Lake accords in the 1980s and 1990s. The Meech Lake Accord — former prime minister Brian Mulroney's effort to bring Quebec into the Constitution by strengthening provincial powers and declaring Quebec a distinct society — was fiercely opposed by Indigenous leaders who said it ignored their rights. In 1990, Manitoba Indigenous leader Elijah Harper, the only Indigenous Manitoba MLA at the time, withheld his consent for the Meech Lake Accord, preventing it from coming to a vote in the province and leading to the accord's eventual failure. Elijah Harper's vote of protest in 1990 35 years ago "Manitoba was at the centre of attention then," Thomas said. Thomas described that period as a time of "high drama, lots of theatre" that occupied more television time than normal for Canadian politics. "I remember my late mother-in-law … complained to me, 'Paul, why is Coronation Street not on CBC? Where did it go?'" Thomas said. "Well, we're trying to save the country." A political moment that still causes Thomas to scratch his head was Manitoba's French-language crisis of 1983-84. The province sparked protests when it said it would introduce legislation to give Franco-Manitobans the constitutional right to receive provincial government services in their own language. That time sticks out in Thomas's memory as an "ugly period." "That was a horrible moment in Manitoba history: high-emotion crowds, mobs … occupying the legislative building and screaming personal threats, targeted at both sides," Thomas said. Tough assignments, proud achievements A politician's duty is to "keep the temperature as low as possible," and to "strive for as much consensus as possible," he said. "Increasingly, in this age of misinformation and disinformation, there's more of that going around. It spilled over from the United States, and it's disappointing [and] discouraging to me." Thomas said one of his toughest assignments was as a consultant for a 1994 inquest led by then provincial court associate chief judge Murray Sinclair, after 12 infants died in one year during cardiac surgery at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre. "That was a very emotional journey for me, dealing with the 12 families who had lost infants in the pediatric cardiac surgery program. I still have vivid memories of that to this day." But a satisfying achievement for Thomas was success after advocating for a legislative internship program for a decade. The program, established in 1985, allows a group of recent university graduates to work in the legislature as research assistants. "That's one of my proudest achievements."
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba byelection called in traditional Progressive Conservative stronghold
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Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
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Spruce Woods byelection called for August 26
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