Sault Blog

Municipal plebiscites (or referendums) in Ontario are direct votes on local matters held during municipal elections, which occur every four years on the fourth Monday of October. For the upcoming October 26, 2026, municipalities can place questions on the ballot to gauge public opinion or pass binding referendums on municipal issues.

As outlined in the Ontario Municipal Elections Act, 1996, a referendum is binding if at least 50 % of eligible electors vote, and a majority of greater than 50% votes “yes”. Plebiscite ballot questions must fall under the jurisdiction of the municipality.

The City of Timmins is set to include a referendum question on the ballot for the October 26, 2026, Municipal Election, asking voters if they support changing the current ward system for electing council members. This decision stems from Council Resolution #24-118, passed on April 8, 2025, which directed the City Clerk to initiate the process required to bring this question to local voters. The question is being added in accordance with section 8.1(3) of the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, which mandates public notice and consultation prior to passing a bylaw to place a referendum question on the ballot, as indicated on Timmins.ca.

Other cities, like Thunder Bay, have examined the use of a plebiscite to gauge voter support for the construction of an event centre in Thunder Bay. Their City Clerk stated that the Ontario Municipal Act requires at least one (1) public meeting to be held to discuss the question before it is approved by City Council. Experience garnered from a prior Thunder Bay plebiscite for the question of banning smoking in public and workspaces in 2003 took four (4) months to do all the preparations, as stated in a CBC.ca article.

So, from the experience of other Northern Ontario cities, a plebiscite question can be put on a City’s municipal election ballot had City Council passed a bylaw or resolution by March 1, 2026, obviously too late now, and that’s disappointing.

In June, 2025, the City Council approved funding for the Waterfront Master Plan, which included an urban beach and swimming pools in the St. Mary’s River, among other tourism attraction concepts. The estimated initial budget for these tourism attraction concepts is $17 million as a starting point; the hard budget-busting lesson learned from the Downtown Plaza is that this cost estimate is at best woefully underestimated.

The biggest complaint about the construction of the Downtown Plaza was and will always remain for many taxpaying citizens: “How did this project become the priority for our City?” Now was not the time for this Downtown Plaza; other City core functions are not being addressed. Core functions like adequate, timely snow and windrow removal; extensive street and road resurfacing; Police neighbourhood patrols; speeding and distracted driving surveillance; and Downtown blighted housing removal are not being addressed because they are not identified as priority spending needs.

Last June, 2025, our City Councillors missed an opportunity to engage the taxpaying citizens of our City by putting this extremely expensive tourism-related project on a plebiscite question for this year’s municipal election ballot.

Ballot question: Yes or No, Do you authorize putting swimming pools in the St. Mary’s River?

Sault Ste. Marie’s municipal voter engagement is too low, and election plebiscite ballot questions could reverse that because it would force voter engagement. Municipal elections are very expensive, and there is a real opportunity for voters to express their preferences on how the City’s Administration should spend its time and our money on issues that matter to the vast majority of voters.

I think it is important to understand that it’s not just candidates that are being elected; but also the ideas, priorities, and concerns that citizens want addressed.

The massive financial investment of this Waterfront Master Plan and its annual operational legacy costs should have been a Yes-or-No plebiscite question on the 2026 Sault Ste. Marie’s municipal election ballot: a real voter engagement opportunity missed.

Mark Menean, http://www.saultblog.com