Spotton Visano, BrendaKlein, Sarah2025-10-092025-10-092025-04-20https://hdl.handle.net/10315/43184This paper examines the outcomes and impacts of Strong Mayor powers and their role in advancing provincial priorities in Ontario. Over recent years, the province’s largest and fastest-growing municipalities have adopted these powers, granting mayors greater authority to implement priorities, manage administration, and oversee budgets, with a primary focus on addressing the housing crisis. While Strong Mayor powers may help advance provincial housing objectives by streamlining decision-making, they can also produce long-term negative effects, including diminished public trust, strained council relationships, and a loss of professional expertise among municipal staff, challenging the balance between effective governance and transparent decision-making. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combined quantitative data on the relationship between Strong Mayor powers, housing target achievements, and development approval timelines with qualitative case studies of three municipalities. Findings indicate a positive relationship between Strong Mayor powers and provincial housing goals, though causation cannot be assumed, and other factors may contribute. Short-term effects include more efficient decision-making, while long-term effects may involve reduced public confidence and weakened council-staff dynamics. Limitations include data validity concerns, potential confounding variables, and the short timeframe since implementation. Further long-term research is recommended.enStrong Mayor powersProvincial prioritiesHousing crisisGovernancePublic trustResearch Paper