Considering the issues faced by the provincial government, Puslinch mayor Dennis Lever found the recent announcement of Premier Kathleen Wynne intent to create new municipal accountability measures and assert greater provincial oversight over municipal government as challenging at best.
Wynne’s proposal would require municipalities to either create new processes to review complaints about service delivery, or choose to have service complaints investigated by the Office of Ontario’s Ombudsman.
While the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) fully supports efficient and credible oversight of municipal services and governance, it rejects the Wynne Government’s vision of how best to achieve it.
AMO contends the The Ontario government would cause duplication and inefficiency.
More importantly the organization suggests “Wynne’s Government does not trust in the capacity of municipal government to expose and address questions about performance and integrity.”
