Recommendations ready for the Ford government on harassment and behavior of council members

Ontario’s integrity commissioner has finalized a series of recommendations on how the province can deal with harassment and misconduct in local councils, Global News has learned, making nine recommendations to the premier.

In early summer, Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote to the integrity commissioner asking for advice on how to improve municipal codes of conduct after pressure mounted to come up with a way to tackle harassment at local councils .

“This summer, the Prime Minister asked the Integrity Commissioner to provide advice on approaches to improve the standardization of the municipal framework for integrity commissioners,” a spokesperson for the Integrity Commissioner told Global News.

“The commissioner provided a report to the prime minister on September 30.”

The issue has been bubbling beneath the surface in the province for years. Councilors in some towns and cities have been accused of sexual misconduct, while a Mississauga councilor is alleged to have repeatedly keyed a colleague’s car.

The City of Pickering has repeatedly made headlines over this issue, with the mayor and council recently writing a letter to the provincial government pleading for help for a colleague who has been found guilty of misconduct more than once by the local integrity commissioner.

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The Ontario Integrity Commissioner’s report includes a total of nine recommendations that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing is considering.

A spokesperson told Global News that the report’s recommendations include a single, standardized code of conduct for all towns and cities and mandatory training for all integrity commissioners, city staff and council members.

It also recommends that the government create a standard process for integrity commissioners to follow, and a possible regional resource-sharing system to help smaller municipalities meet the costs of investigations.

According to the government, the full list of recommendations is as follows:

• The ministry should draw up one standardized code of conduct for all municipalities.
• Training should be required for integrity commissioners, councilors and municipal staff.
• The Department should require each municipality to provide accessible information identifying the integrity commissioner, scope of jurisdiction, and contact information.
• The ministry should keep a register of all municipal integrity commissioners.
• Integrity commissioners should have access to a central database of all completed investigations.
• The ministry should establish a standard process for investigations of integrity commissioners.
• The ministry may want to consider a centralized or regional system to help smaller municipalities manage costs.
• Require integrity commissioners to submit a public annual report.
• Establish a requirement for proactive financial disclosure.

The ministry spokesperson said the government was reviewing the recommendations and would “work with the integrity commission on an approach to implement them.”

Going ahead with the new recommendations would be the second serious attempt the government has made to tackle the problem of councillors’ misconduct.

The previous plan, which came within days of being tabled in 2021 under then-minister Steve Clark, focused on penalties for misbehaving local officials.

Documents previously obtained by Global News show that Clark had drafted a bill that would have given judges the ability to ban council members guilty of certain indiscretions from running for office for seven years and force them to pay the costs of investigating their conduct to pay back.

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra asked municipalities this summer for “some more time” for his possible law in this area.

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