Strong Mayor Reveals Rift Between CF Mayor Smith & Council

Jeff Green | Apr 23, 2025

A special meeting of Central Frontenac Council took place on Tuesday, April 15, at the request of five members of Cen tral Frontenac Council. The councillor wanted to beat a provincial deadline of April 16 for municipal responses to the pending establishment of strong may or status for the township.

South, Central, and North Frontenac were all included in a list of 169 municipalities in the province, who will become ‘strong may or’ municipalities on May 1st. These munici palities were chosen because they all have councils that include 6 members or more. Among municipalities in our local region, Tay Valley, Lanark Highlands, Stone Mills, Storrington, and Rideau Lakes were also on the list. Addington Highlands, Westport, and Frontenac Islands, which all have 5 member councils, were not on the list. Central Frontenac Mayor, Frances Smith, received a letter from the Minister of Munici pal Affairs and Housing, Robert Flack, on April 9th, informing her that she will have “strong mayor powers”, starting next month.

According to the letter, ‘strong mayor powers’ include the power to choose to ap point the municipality's chief administrative officer, hire certain municipal department heads and establish and re-organise de partments, create council committees and appoint members of those committees. The mayor will also propose the municipal budget, which “would be subject to Council amendments and a separate mayoral veto and Council override process,” according to the letter. The powers also include veto powers over certain matters, and are “related to pro vincial priorities including building 1.5 million new homes by December 31, 2031, and constructing and maintaining infrastructure to support housing, including: transit, roads, utilities, and servicing.”

At the special meeting, a number of councils expressed their concern that the new powers will limit their role, and provide too much authority to the mayor.

After all members of council had a chance  to speak, Mayor Smith said “these powers have been around for a while, and I remember when I first heard about it, I said, wow, are you putting a target on the mayor' back, which is very much so.” She then said that in her years in municipal politics, “I have not been one to go out on my own, I have tried to be fair in all my decisions, and that won't change whether I have strong mayor powers or not, and I believe each of us around this table will do that.”

Then, she said something else about the current council. “My one problem with this table is the 'five' voting together. That's a problem. I don't think I've seen that in my years around here. So, maybe the strong mayor powers would have to come into play somewhere down the road. I don't know.”

She qualified that statement by saying that for her, the powers would only be “used in the very severe situation where the facts are on the table, and Council decided to go in a totally opposite direction that would be hurtful to the municipality. That's when I believe I would be the strong mayor and make a decision.”

She said that she is not interested in preparing budgets or hiring and firing the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), and reminded Council that the mayor is the only member of council that is elected by all the electors in the township, since council members are elected by their district, but all members of council, including the mayor, need to look to the interests of the township as a whole in their decision-making. “These powers are given, and I don;t know what you can do with them except to accept them, and only use them to deal with what has to be dealt with, in extreme circumstances, that's the way I see it.” CAO Cathy MacMunn said she has talked to the ministry, and clarified that there is no opt in or opt out provision for strong mayor powers for municipalities that have been granted them. The mayor can use them or not, but the powers will be in place regardless.

Councillor Nicki Gowdy said that when  Kingston was named a strong mayor municipality, the mayor delegated the powers back to Council, and she asked CAO MacMunn to research how that process took place.

“Councillor Philip Smith said “you made a couple of comments, Madam Mayor, that I take a little offense to. You talked about a voting group of five, and the fact that you might use your veto powers because of that. So I guess that goes to prove that you may not like the decision but you are going to overturn it.”

“That's a possibility,” said Mayor Smith. “So there's democracy in action, I guess,” said Philip Smith.

Later in the meeting, Councillor Duncan McGregor took up the mayor's initial comments again. “You said that as mayor you think it is appropriate that if Council votes against you on a motion, that as mayor you think it is appropriate to veto the motion because your opinion is more important.”

“I wasn't going to bring this up and discuss it, but there is a group around this table that lobby each other, not at this table. That's not the way that democracy runs. But if that is how it works for five or six people, they literally can rule the roost and make the decisions. And, not be at the table discussing what the issues are, in public, but coming to the table with your mind already made up. That's not what I have seen over the years, and it is not the way the business of this municipality should be carried out. I don't call you to lobby you to vote the way I think it should go. But I know that there are councillors here, who lobby each other, maybe make deals about ‘if you give this to my district, I'll help you with that,’. I don't know. “But I don't like that feeling of having five people come to the table with their minds already made up, before you actually hear any of the discussions ... if that's the case, maybe that's why the strong mayor powers are coming out, I don't know.”

“Ok, if that's the case, Madam Mayor, would you be willing to explain who those councillors are?” asked McGregor. “No,” said Mayor Smith, “I think you know who they are.”

“You made accusations that there are decisions made, not at this table. I'm just wondering if you could back that up,” said McGregor.

“Oh, I think there's lots to back it up, but I'm not going to get into it right now,” said Smith.

Council considered three motions at the meeting. The first, proposed by CAO MacMunn, was to authorise the “CAO/Clerk and Deputy Clerk to investigate potential training opportunities for the mayor, Council and Staff to assist with the transition to strong mayor powers.” That motion was defeated in a 6-1 vote, with Mayor Smith recording the only yes vote.

The second motion was for the township to send a letter to the province expressing the township's desire for the province to remove Central Frontenac from the list of municipalities to be granted strong mayor powers. The motion was approved by a 6-1 vote, with Mayor Smith recording the only no vote.

The third was to authorise the CAO to provide Council with a process through which the mayor can delegate strong mayor powers to Council after May 1st. The motion was approved by a 6-1 vote, with Mayor Smith recording the only no vote.

Councillors Lynn Klages and Cindy Kelsey, who both represent ward 1 (Kennebec) were not at the meeting.

Subsequent to the meeting, the Frontenac News has contacted Councillors Duncan McGregor and Philip Smith, asking each of them if they speak to other councillors outside of meetings on council business, and conducted back and forth lobbying. They said they do call other members of council and take calls as well. They said that the calls are not meant to influence how any one votes on matters coming before council, or to create a block of voters.

They each said that they are aware that, according to the Municipal Act, they cannot meet with four other members of council outside of formal council meetings to discuss council matters, in person or virtually.