Sault Ste. Marie City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Meeting at the Ronald A. Irwin Civic Centre on the city's waterfront, it consists of ten city councillors and the mayor of Sault Ste. Marie.
The council's function is to support the municipality, its programs and services, while ensuring that the public's interest is being represented and upheld.
More specifically, council passes by-laws, resolutions as needed and is responsible to direct the business of the city, with the authority to approve the city budget, set policy and committee processes.[1][2]
Sault Ste. Marie council operates on a committee of the whole structure, meaning that almost all matters are directly considered by the whole council, rather than standing committees of councillors as exist in other Ontario municipalities like Toronto. Council does use advisory committees composed of councillors and members of the public for some matters. These committees deliberate and make recommendations that are considered by the whole of council.
Administration of the city's day-to-day operations and finances is delegated to the city's Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), the city's senior most official who directs other city staff in accordance with decisions adopted by the whole of Council.[3]
At council meetings, the mayor and councillors each have one vote and a majority vote decides most matters.
The council meets approximately every three weeks on Mondays, however only one meeting a month is held in the summer.[4]
As the head of council, the mayor is the chief executive officer of the municipality. They are principally responsible for presiding over the meetings of the council and being the chief public spokesperson for the city and council. In addition, the mayor has certain powers under Part VI.1 of Ontario's Municipal Act, 2001 to direct the work of city staff and determine the organizational structure of city hall.[5]
The city's current mayor is Matthew Shoemaker, a former two-term city councillor, who was sworn in on November 15, 2022[6] His current term will end on November 14, 2026.[7]
Councillors
Councillors act as representatives of their wards at council meetings, on city committees and with the public. They also work to help constituents navigate city hall and services and work to address problems or complaints.[8]
Two councillors are elected from each of the city's five geographically defined wards using a single non-transferable vote. Electors vote for two candidates and the two that receive the largest number of votes in each ward are elected.[9]
Current councillors
The current council's term of office began on November 15, 2022 and will end on November 14, 2026.[10]
Prior to becoming a city in 1912, Sault Ste. Marie had been a township governed by council that included a mayor and six councillors elected at-large.[21] Once incorporated as a city on April 16, 1912, the former town council headed by Mayor William H. Munro became the first council of the new city.[22] Munro and council governed the city until their terms ended early the following year.
The provincial government's Act to incorporate the City of Sault Ste. Marie left most things as they had been under the previous town, such as boundaries, by-laws, regulations, contracts, and employees. However, beginning in 1913 the number of councillors, styled "aldermen" in the statute, would increase from six to eight. The statute envisioned that number increasing up to ten once the census population had exceeded 15,000.[23]
Voters had the opportunity to elect their first city council in January 1913. It consisted of a mayor, Thomas E. Simpson and eight aldermen elected at-large from across the city.[24] At the time the mayor and council were elected to a one year term with elections occurring each January.
After only two elections, council petitioned the province to replace the at-large system with a system of wards, where aldermen would represent geographic sections of the city, as existed in other large cities and had been used in the town until 1899. The province allowed a plebiscite on the matter which was approved in January 1915 by a vote of 1,110 to 459.[25] The municipal election that occurred on January 3, 1916 was the first under the ward system, with the city divided into four wards with two aldermen representing each.[26] Councillors have continued to be elected on a ward system since then.
Following a plebiscite of its residents, the town of Steelton, and its 7,000 residents amalgamated with the city of Sault Ste. Marie on January 1, 1918.[27] This resulted in two more wards being added to the council for a total of six wards and twelve aldermen.[28] This would be the only change to the number of councillors and wards until 2018.
The first honorariums for councillors were paid in 1928. Following the practice of similar-sized cities, council voted to provide each alderman an honorarium of $5 per meeting they attended, capped at $120 a year.[29]
In May 1946, the council agreed to move election day to the first Monday in December. Until then municipal elections had tended to be held on or near the first Monday of the new year. Moving the vote earlier in the calendar prevented elections happening too close to the holiday period, avoided winter storms that could effect turn-out, and conformed with the practices of most other Ontario municipalities.[30] The municipal election that year was held on Monday, December 9; elections would continue to be held in December until 1978.
Following a provincial order, on January 1, 1965 the townships of Korah and Tarentorus were amalgamated into Sault Ste. Marie. Unlike the earlier amalgamation of Steelton, this merger saw no increase in the number of councillors. Instead the plan redrew the existing six wards to include the new parts of the city.[31]
In the summer of 1975, the staff and council moved to a new city hall on the city's waterfront.[32] The only city hall at 749 Queen Street East was demolished that summer.
In 1978, the provincial government changed the municipal election date from the first Monday in December to the second Monday in November and required that council hold its inaugural meeting and swearing in in mid-December.[33]
The city council's term of office had been two years since 1941. This was expanded to three years beginning with the 1982 city election.[34] Twenty-four years later, the provincial government increased terms to four years beginning with the November 13, 2006 municipal election.[35]
On January 29 1990, the city council ignited a nation-wide controversy by adopting a resolution declaring English the sole working language of city government. The resolution, which had been pushed for by a small group in the city, was seen as unnecessary and provocative. It also became a flashpoint in the debate around the Meech Lake Accord. In June 1994, the Ontario Court struck down the resolution, finding that the council did not have the power to make such a declaration.[36] Twenty years after the original resolution was passed, then-mayor John Rowswell apologized to French Canadians for the resolution.[37]
In December 1991, the council voted almost unanimously to recommend that the title "alderman" be replaced with "councillor."[38][39] The former term had been adopted when the municipality became a city in 1912. Preceding that, the title "town councillor" had been used.[40] The 1991 decision reversed the stance taken by council in January 1987, when following an emotional debate, the council narrowly defeated a motion by Joan DesJardins, the only woman on council at the time to change the title to "councillor".[41]
In 1996, the council became the centre of controversy when it appointed Joe Fratesi, the mayor at the time, to the city's top staff job. Fratesi was twice found to have violated conflict of interest legislation when he applied for and accepted the chief administrative officer position while still mayor. Following a heated debate, on December 6, 1996 the council voted to let Fratesi stay on as CAO.[42] He would remain in that role until retiring in 2015.[43]
In March 2017, the council chose to reduce its total number of representatives, from 12 councillors representing six wards to 10 councillors in five wards. Mayor Christian Provenzano argued that "we have more councillors per capita than the vast majority of communities we compare to". Wards were redrawn and the change came into effect for the 2018 municipal election.[44]
Notable milestones
Coincidentally, it was almost 25 years to the day between Sault Ste. Marie becoming a town and it becoming a city. The legislation that established the town received royal assent on April 23, 1887, while the legislation that incorporated it as a city received royal assent on April 12, 1912.[45]
The first vacancy on city council occurred with the death of alderman Dr. Thomas McQuaid in 1917.
In 1918 council filled a vacancy for a councillor who had gone missing. Having been missing for three months, in May 1918 the council declared alderman and former mayor William H. Munro's Ward Two seat vacant.[46] Following a nomination period, the council elected W. J. Jeffery by acclimation to fill the remainder of the term.[47] Three months later, Munro's remains were found in the St. Marys River, the result of an accidental drowning that January.[48]
In 1964, Vera Falldien became the first woman elected to the council. She had been a five-year veteran of the former Tarentorous council prior to amalgamation.[49] It would be another 21 years before the next woman councillor, Joan Desjardins would be elected in Ward Six.[50]
Having retired in 2014 at the age of 87, Frank Manzo is the oldest person to have served on city council. He is also the council's longest serving councillor, serving a total of 38 years from 1996 to 2014, with a six year interruption following an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 1994.
First elected in 1959, Tom Angus is the council's longest continuously serving member, representing Ward One and then Ward Two for 31 consecutive years until deciding not to re-offer in 1991 at the age of 76.
John Rowswell was the first mayor to die while in office. Passing away on August 31, 2010, Rowswell was in his third term as mayor at the time.[51]
In 2010, Debbie Amaroso became the first woman to be elected mayor of Sault Ste. Marie.[52] Two female councillors, Lorena Tridico and Susan Myers, each served one month as acting mayor following John Rowswell's death in 2010.[53]
In June 2017, for the first time in its history, a vacancy on council was filled by drawing a name from a fish bowl. Instead of a ward by-election, council used its option to fill a vacancy in Ward Six with an election by council members. When a third round of voting resulted in a tie, Ozzie Grandinetti was declared elected when, following tradition in the province, names were placed in a glass fishbowl and drawn by the city clerk.[54]
Past councils
City councils since 1965 when the city of Sault Ste. Marie amalgamated with Korah and Tarentorus townships.
1965-1966 Council
Council elected in the December 7, 1964 municipal election.[55]
Council elected in the November 13, 1978 municipal election.[62] The provincial government had changed the municipal election date from the first Monday in December to the second Monday in November and required that councils hold their inaugural meeting in mid December.[63]
ᛡ Following Rowswell's death on August 31, 2010, three councillors served as acting mayor for the remainder of the term. Lorena Tridico was acting mayor in September; Susan Myers was acting mayor in October; and Ozzie Grandinetti was acting mayor in November.[82]
ᛡ Sandra Hollingsworth was elected in a February 1, 2016 by-election to succeed Terry Sheehan.[83] ᛡᛡ Ozzie Grandinetti was appointed by council on June 26, 2017 to replace Ross Romano.[84]
