Ontario appoints 8 regional chairs after controversial rule change

We appreciate the... Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack announced the eight new regional chairs in a news release. Controversially, the Ford government picked them and gave them strong chair powers. That means they can veto certain bylaws, propose the municipal budget, and hire and fire some staff. Minister Flack says it'll save money and speed up both home building and decision making. It's already being slammed by the opposition. An attack on local democracy. And it's a way to install a kind of dictatorship. They're appointed positions that can override two-thirds of elected councils. And they're appointed directly from the premier's office. Of these eight people, two of them are already mayors, just re-elected last month. Kevin Ash, mayor of Pickering, becomes the chair in Durham Region. In York Region, it's Stephen Del Duca, the mayor of Vaughan. There are also some former and outgoing mayors. In Niagara, it's Frank Campion. The outgoing mayor of Welland. In Simcoe County, Don McIsaac. He's the outgoing mayor of Orillia. Anne Mulvale is the new chair of Halton. She's a former mayor of Oakville. Waterloo's chair is Scott Davey. He's a Kitchener city councillor. In Peel, Nando Iannico was already the elected chair. And in Muskoka, it's Scott Aitchison. He recently stepped down as a Conservative member of Parliament. For those who now have two municipal jobs, there's no double dipping. They'll receive the higher salary. I will not be collecting any salary at the city council level. That will be a job that I'm doing just because of the commitment that I made to do it. As for how one does two jobs, the Pickering mayor slash Durham chair says it's not unheard of. Our prime minister is an MP as well as the leader of our country. So I think the old adage, you know, you give a busy person the job is probably true right now. And I'm looking forward to the challenges. And for those concerned about the new strong chair powers, Kevin Ash says he was judicious as a strong mayor. I haven't used it to fast track any legislation or bylaws. I haven't used the veto at all. The new strong chairs say they'll learn more about expectations when they get their mandate letters later this year. A Ford government spokesperson says those letters will be made public. That's unlike previous mandate letters for cabinet ministers. The government fought in court to keep them private. For Brenda Reddick-Hopp, CBC News, Toronto.