Women of Ontario Say No

Jeff Green | Oct 11, 2023

Nancy Cairns, a former municipal employee, made a presentation to Frontenac County Council last month about proposed changes to “modernise the Ontario Municipal Act” in order to create consequences for members of council, in cases of harassment of members, of staff or other employees.

The “Women of Ontario Say No” proposals were created in the context of circumstances that occurred in Ottawa during the last term of council, with Councillor Rick Ciarellii.

Cairns said that harassment of employees, particularly female employees, or other members of council, is not accounted for in the Ontario Municipal Act.

She pointed that the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) as well as the Ontario Big City Mayors Group, has called for changes earlier this year, and a report about potential changes has been in the hands of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs since 2021, but the government has not acted as of yet.

The changes proposed by AMO include: updating codes of conduct to account for workplace safety and harassment, creating a flexible administrative penalty regime, adapted to local financial circumstances in a given municipality, improve integrity commissioner training to include harassment, allow municipalities to apply to a member of the judiciary to remove a sitting member if recommended by council, and prohibiting a member who has been removed from running again.

She requested that Frontenac County Council send a letter to the Premier endorsing the Women of Ontario, and AMO proposals, for changes to the Municipal Act to include consequences for harassment.

“You might think that these cases are rare, but they aren't,” she said, “I experienced them myself and had to resign my position even though I loved working in municipal government. A survey of municipal employees showed that 70% reported experiencing some level of harassment in the workplace.”

In response to the presentation, Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith said, “this is not an exclusively male-female issue, it can be a female-male issue. We should be clear on that.”

North Frontenac Mayor Gerry Lichty said “it is a complicated issue. There are also issues concerning the treatment of council members by the public. I have seen these issues myself and they are difficult, so thank you for your presentation.

“Certainly everyone has the right to be free of harassment in their workplace, and that goes for the way members of the public treat council members, but there is a power dynamic in these cases that is different, because we are dealing effectively with employers and employees,” said Cairns.

Warden Vandewal pointed out that South Frontenac County has already sent a letter of support for the proposed changes, to the Premier.

Later in the meeting a notice of motion was moved by Mayor Smith, and the matter will be on the agenda at the Frontenac County Council meeting, on October 20.