Recommendations ready for Ford government on councillor harassment, conduct

Ontario’s integrity commissioner has completed a suite of recommendations for however the state tin grip harassment and misbehaviour connected section councils, Global News has learned, delivering 9 recommendations to the premier.

At the opening of the summer, Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote to the integrity commissioner asking for proposal connected however to amended municipal behaviour rules aft increasing unit to travel up with a mode to grip harassment connected section councils.

“This summer, the premier asked the Integrity Commissioner to supply proposal connected approaches to amended the standardization of the municipal integrity commissioner framework,” a spokesperson for the integrity commissioner told Global News.

“The Commissioner provided the premier with a study connected Sept. 30.”

The contented has bubbled nether the aboveground successful the state for years. Councillors person been accused of intersexual misconduct successful immoderate towns and cities, portion a Mississauga councillor was alleged to person keyed a colleague’s car repeatedly.

The City of Pickering has made headlines repeatedly connected the issue, with the politician and assembly precocious writing to the provincial government begging for assistance with 1 colleague, who has been recovered blameworthy of misconduct by the section integrity commissioner much than once.

The study from Ontario’s integrity commissioner lays retired a full of 9 recommendations that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing is considering.

A spokesperson told Global News the report’s recommendations see a single, standardized codification of behaviour for each towns and cities and mandatory grooming for each integrity commissioners, metropolis unit and councillors.

It besides recommends the authorities make a modular integrity commissioner process that has to beryllium followed and a imaginable determination resource-sharing strategy to assistance smaller municipalities grip the outgo of investigations.

According to the government, the afloat database of recommendations is arsenic follows:

• The ministry should make a single, standardized codification of behaviour for each municipalities.
• Training should beryllium required for integrity commissioners, councillors and municipal staff.
• The ministry should necessitate each municipality to supply accessible accusation that identifies its integrity commissioner, the scope of jurisdiction, and interaction information.
• The ministry should support a registry of each municipal integrity commissioners.
• Integrity commissioners should person entree to a cardinal database of each completed inquiries.
• The ministry should found a modular process for integrity commissioner investigations.
• The ministry whitethorn privation to see a centralized oregon determination strategy to assistance smaller municipalities negociate costs.
• Require integrity commissioners to taxable a nationalist yearly report.
• Establish a request for proactive fiscal disclosure.

The ministry spokesperson said the authorities was reviewing the recommendations and would “work with” the integrity committee “on an attack to implementing” them.

Moving up with the caller recommendations would people the 2nd superior effort the authorities has made to tackle the contented of councillor misconduct.

The erstwhile plan, which came wrong days of being tabled successful 2021 nether then-minister Steve Clark, focused connected punishments for misbehaving section officials.

Documents previously obtained by Global News amusement Clark had drafted a measure that would person fixed judges the quality to prohibition councillors blameworthy of definite indiscretions from moving for bureau for 7 years and unit them to repay the outgo of investigations into their conduct.

Over the summer, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra asked municipalities for “a small spot much time” to his imaginable instrumentality connected the taxable right.