04/04/2016
Today the Government of Ontario introduced legislative changes to the Municipal Elections Act, 1996 (MEA) in the Legislative Assembly. The MEA sets out rules for electors and candidates, and roles for municipal clerks and councils in municipal and school board elections in Ontario. Bills generally are not publicly available until posted on Hansard, which is often the day after introduction. We will provide the link on our website as soon as it is available. If passed, the legislation would change the campaign period, and rules for election financing including third party advertising and union and corporate donations. Municipal governments would also be given the option of using ranked ballot elections for future elections. Ranked balloting allows voters to rank more than one candidate. Municipal governments would hold public consultations before ranked ballot elections are conducted but not necessarily need to have a referendum. Based on Minister McMeekin’s statement, the changes introduced today build on consultations by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) in 2015. At that time, AMO provided information to members on the use of ranked ballot voting, and made a formal submission to MMAH in July 2015. Some of the key highlights we know include: