It was kept under lock and key for two years: a secret chat room for the mayors of Ontario’s biggest cities.
asserted
It → keep → cities
That secrecy was pierced Thursday after a provincial freedom-of-information adjudicator ruled in favour of the Star’s request to view and publish the documents.
asserted
adjudicator → pierce → documents
The records span 18 months of conversations between the mayors of dozens of cities, including Toronto, Hamilton and Brampton.
asserted
records → span → Toronto
And there is encouragement, particularly whenever someone pens an opinion article or is quoted in the media.
asserted
someone → be → media
What there doesn’t appear to be, however, is anything that obviously warranted such secretiveness.
asserted
that → appear → secretiveness
“We are all passionate, dedicated people who get up every day to serve the communities we represent,” Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward said in an October 2024 message to the group.
asserted
Ward → get → group
“We do this often under attack and facing significant challenges but we persist because we believe we can do something to make our cities and by extension our country better.
asserted
cities → face → extension
The issues we face are difficult and conversations can get bumpy but we all keep our eye on what matters and that’s the people we serve.”
asserted
we → face → eye
The conversations do, indeed, get bumpy.
asserted
conversations → get → ?
In 2024, Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath appeared to accuse one of her peers of leaking a draft of a joint proposal to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, in which the mayors planned to ask the province to use the notwithstanding clause to clear homeless encampments.
asserted
mayors → appear → encampments
“Congratulations to whoever decided to leak the draft motion and sabotage a campaign that we could all get behind … and break the trust of colleagues,” she wrote.
uncertain
she → decide → colleagues
“Also as predicted the heat has shifted to us and off the other orders of government as predicted.
asserted
heat → predict → government
In other exchanges across the 101 pages of group chat correspondence, which the Star obtained Thursday after a legal battle with the Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) organization, mayors made biting comments about the higher levels of government.
asserted
mayors → obtain → government
“Ottawa broke the housing market with an unsustainable and unpredicted and unprepared for increase in demand from their massive increase in immigration,” wrote Oakville Mayor Rob Burton in 2024.
asserted
Burton → break → 2024
“We need immigration, they just forgot about the fact that people need somewhere to actually live, not just work,” replied Horwath, to which Burton agreed.
asserted
Burton → need → which
In 2023, Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe said Ottawa had created an “untenable” situation for Ukrainian newcomers, who arrived in her city for school only to find out they were not being classed as refugees and therefore would have to pay exorbitant international student fees.
asserted
they → say → fees
“The federal government needs to start talking to municipalities before they set their immigration and refugee targets,” she said.
asserted
she → need → targets
In response to a statement on the radio by Premier Doug Ford in 2024 that the province was “pouring money in” to build shelters and that he hoped the municipalities were “spending it wisely,” Burton said, “The money pouring in is news to Halton.”
asserted
money → pour → Halton
St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe replied: “Niagara would also like to know the location of the money spigots.”
asserted
Niagara → reply → spigots
One October morning, she said she had to call-in to a group meeting because she was stuck in traffic on the Don Valley Parkway.
asserted
she → say → Parkway
About a month into her mayoralty, she said Ontario mayors should “push for some immediate action and commitment” from the provincial and federal governments to help with an influx of asylum seekers.
asserted
mayors → say → seekers
The following year, during a discussion about whether to present a united front to the province to ask for more hospital funding, she deferred to her peers, saying she was “supportive of what the team decide.”
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team → present → what
How the Star discovered the group chat
asserted
Star → discover → chat
In December 2024, Chow made a surprising admission to a gathering of reporters outside her office.
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Chow → make → office
Earlier that morning, Ford had sent a letter to mayors around Ontario, letting them know he would grant municipalities enhanced legislative powers to override courts and dismantle homeless encampments.
asserted
he → send → encampments
Many mayors had been pleading with the province for this.
asserted
mayors → plead → this
She explained that Toronto’s solution to homelessness would be housing and transitional and emergency services, such as warming centres and shelters.
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solution → explain → centres
But, she said, she understood why other mayors were taking a different approach.
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mayors → say → approach
She knew this because she was in a group chat with them, where she said they had shared, among other things, pictures of homeless encampments.
asserted
they → know → encampments
(No encampment photos were visible in the chat transcript the Star received.)
asserted
Star → receive → transcript
“I do hear and see the desperation of many mayors across Ontario,” she said.
asserted
she → hear → Ontario
“I read their numbers.
asserted
I → read → numbers
We’re on a WhatsApp group together and every day they’re saying ‘Oh my god, what are we going to do?
asserted
we → ’re → what
It’s getting cold,’ you know, and they have photos of people in tents in their city and it’s growing and growing and growing
asserted
it → get → city
The Star submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to examine these messages.
asserted
Star → submit → messages
Ontario big city mayors group fought disclosure
asserted
group → fight → disclosure
Although records show every single mayor in the chat agreed to disclose its contents to access to information co-ordinators — including Chow, who had to turn her phone over to the city clerk for inspection — the intergovernmental organization that represents them, the OBCM worked to keep them sealed.
asserted
OBCM → show → them
OBCM is a non-profit with a membership consisting of mayors from the province’s 29 biggest cities.
asserted
OBCM → consist → cities
These cities fund the organization with public money paid in the form of an annual membership fee.
asserted
cities → fund → fee
The OBCM retained Gowling WLG, one of Canada’s largest law firms.
asserted
OBCM → retain → firms
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
