About the role
Lead an organization mandated to work with local governments and partners across Ontario to build safe and strong urban and rural communities with:
- dynamic local economies
- a high quality of life for residents
- homes that meet people’s diverse needs
The ministry develops and administers policies and programs in support of:
- economic development, municipal administration, governance and finance
- municipal, land use planning
- growth management
- building regulation
- community and market housing
The ministry also administers disaster/emergency financial assistance to eligible communities and individuals.
As the Deputy Minister, you will operationalize several recent policy and legislative changes and drive transformation to advance the ministry’s policy and program goals. You will work with 444 municipalities and other stakeholders to support strong and collaborative provincial-municipal relationships.
If you are strategic, authentic, and a transformational leader, we’re looking for you.
Learn more about the ministry.
Our call for applications closed on September 12, 2019. Thank you for your interest in this senior leadership role with the Ontario Public Service.
We are currently in the process of reviewing applications. We will contact candidates who sparked our interest very shortly.
Some key dates to note in your calendar:
- First round interviews: late September to early October
- Second round interviews: mid October
- Ideal start date for successful candidate: mid-to-late December/early January
What can I expect in this role?
As a trusted advisor, you will support the Minister and Minister’s Office and work closely with the most senior levels of government and multiple municipal partners and stakeholders to deliver the ministry’s mandate.
As the most senior public servant in the ministry, you will report to the Secretary of the Cabinet, who is the Head of the Ontario Public Service.
This is your opportunity to have significant impact and influence stakeholders, colleagues and decision-makers pertaining to issues affecting municipalities.
In this critical role you will:
- be responsive: by addressing changing needs and directions quickly, providing timely and high-quality advice and support
- establish partnerships: by actively working within and across internal boundaries, hierarchies and mandates, as well as with external partners and stakeholders
- drive operational efficiency and innovation: by providing leadership in transformation, creative problem-solving and fiscal responsibility
- model inspirational and inclusive leadership: by inspiring each person to be inclusive in their work, incorporating diverse perspectives and ensuring accessibility and by inviting and responding to different perspectives from a place of curiosity and non-judgement
- champion service excellence: by leading the provision of first-rate solutions to client-specific needs and strengthening collaboration
Security clearance requirement
- If you are the successful candidate, you must successfully complete an Ontario Provincial Police security screening check
How do I qualify?
Inspirational and inclusive leader
- You have provided strong senior executive leadership in large and complex organizations working with senior executives, committees and governing bodies
- You are a proven and resilient change leader who understands the needs of communities across the province
- You have fostered organizational cultures that bring together people of different identities, abilities, races, backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, skills, and generations in the workplace
- You have inspired high performing teams, promoted excellence, delivered results and managed risks in challenging environments
Relationship builder
- You have a proven ability to build and sustain collaborative relationships with stakeholders across government sectors, other jurisdictions and the private sector
- You have excellent interpersonal skills and experience dealing positively with others, including in highly stressful situations
- You have or could quickly establish credibility with municipal partners and other key stakeholders
Astute strategist
- You have in-depth executive experience with policy and program development, strategic planning, financial and resource management
- You have sound knowledge of government decision making processes with a distinguished record of relevant public sector, private sector or combined accomplishments
- You are a sophisticated communicator with the ability to engage in complex stakeholder negotiations and influence others
- You can anticipate opportunities, issues and trends and provide advice to establish policies, programs and priorities that meet the expectations of various stakeholders
Trusted advisor
- You have exceptional communication and advisory skills to provide the Secretary of the Cabinet, the Minister and the Premier’s Office with candid, non-partisan advice within a relationship of trust, good judgement and discretion
- You have political acuity to anticipate and respond to complex and sensitive situations
- You have flexibility and resilience to adapt in a changing environment
If you would like further information about this key leadership role, please contact Marguerita Gonsalves, Manager, Leadership Practices at marguerita.gonsalves@ontario.ca.
- The Ontario Public Service is an inclusive employer and is committed to diversifying its senior leaders
- If you require communication in another format and/or accommodation to apply, please contact the Executive Programs and Services Branch at DMSearch@ontario.ca
Living in Ontario
This role will be based in Toronto, Ontario, a world-class city at the heart of Ontario’s innovation corridor and a key connection point to in-demand markets and talent across the province.
About the Ontario Public Service
The Government of Ontario includes ministries, agencies and Crown corporations. Its workforce of 60,000+ public servants is called the Ontario Public Service (OPS).
The OPS:
- helps the government of the day to develop and deliver policies and programs
- is politically neutral and remains in place through elections
- works in diverse areas (for example, policy, communications, technology and program delivery)
- is governed by the rules set out in the Public Service of Ontario Act, 2006
About the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Overview and vision statement
Purpose
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing works with local governments and partners across Ontario to build safe and strong urban and rural communities with:
- dynamic local economies
- a high quality of life for residents, and
- homes that meet people’s diverse needs.
Vision statement (2019 Ontario Budget)
All of the people of Ontario can find a home that meets their needs and their budget. The Province will partner with municipalities to ensure that they are working as effectively and efficiently as possible to support the economic prosperity of their residents and businesses.
The Province is modernizing the way that government works. To achieve this, the government has committed to supporting municipalities so that they have the resources they need to modernize their governments and create efficiencies. For that reason, the Province provided $200 million in one‐time financial support in 2018–19 for financially constrained small and rural municipalities.
A part of protecting what matters most is providing for affordable homes and responsible planning. Ontario needs more community housing supply — there are too many low‐income people waiting for help to find housing they can afford. The government is leveraging federal, municipal and provincial support to provide more affordable housing for the Province’s Community Housing Renewal Strategy, which will address waitlist issues for community housing and ensure that the people most in need of community housing get access first.
Ontario’s Housing Supply Action Plan will bring forward solutions to make it faster and easier to build housing, to help boost housing supply and make housing more affordable. The plan will be flexible so that each community can build what it needs while protecting sensitive areas like the Greenbelt, preserving cultural heritage and maintaining Ontario’s vibrant agricultural sector.
Major ministry programs
Local government
- Provides a policy and legislative framework to promote and build municipal capacity and enable municipal partners to create prosperous communities
- Builds municipal financial sustainability to invest in infrastructure and deliver services
- Facilitates a strong relationship between the province and municipalities to ensure their perspectives are understood
- Delivers disaster recovery and mitigation programs
- Develops tools that improve local government administration and service delivery
Land use planning
- Develops the policy and legislative framework to support well-planned and managed growth that fosters sustainable local and regional communities
- Ensures consistency with provincial interests and provincial plans
- Coordinates provincial support and input on land use planning decisions through a one-window land use planning approvals system
- Protects environmental and agricultural lands, and sensitive and valuable resources, while promoting economic development
Building regulation
- Helps ensure new buildings are safe, accessible, energy efficient and cost effective
- Develops policies that are implemented through Building Code amendments
- Delivers building-related services, such as qualifying and registering practitioners and overseeing college training
- Helps implement the Building Code through stakeholder engagement, developing guidelines and support materials
- Supports commissions that provide dispute resolution and facilitate technological innovation
Housing
Community housing
- Provides social and affordable housing/housing assistance to those who cannot pay in the private market
- Social housing iw housing built with the financial assistance of governments (particularly the federal government), and includes public, non-profit and co-operative housing and rent supplements in the private market
- Affordable housing largely refers to modest-cost housing where rents are often charged as a percentage of the average of the local market
- Affordable housing programs fund new affordable rental construction and repair, home-ownership and rental assistance to individuals and households
- Federal government and Ontario often cost match programs
Policy/program implementation (Municipal Services Offices)
- Provides on the ground regional support to navigate local government, planning and housing issues
- Monitors the financial health of municipalities and offers services to support accountability, transparency, strong governance and sound financial management
- Reviews and approves municipal land use planning documents and when necessary, appeals land-use planning matters of provincial interest to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal
- Works with municipal service managers and delivery agents to implement provincial housing programs and comply with legislation and regulations governing housing and homelessness programs
- Brings regional perspectives to issues management, decision-making and policy development
Internal administration
- Strategic legal advice and coordination of corporate policy initiatives
- Business and resources planning, internal audits, reporting and controllership functions
- Monitors human, financial, information management resources and information technology and physical assets
- Management and operational support to the ministry’s classified agencies and minister’s appointment process
- Delivers strategic communications advice and coordinates issues management
- Coordinates responses to minister’s correspondence
Market housing
- Goal is to increase the availability and affordability of a wide range and mix of market rental and ownership housing
- Legislative and policy framework for addressing conflicting interests and disputes within the landlord-tenancy relationship, including the enforcement of offences
Rental housing enforcement
- Resolves public complaints about offences under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006
- Range of tools used, including facilitating voluntary compliance through education and intervention through to prosecutions, if needed
Homelessness
- Provides a flexible array of services and supports to assist the homeless – and those at risk of homelessness – to become stably housed or avoid becoming homeless in the first place
- Works across government to address causes of homelessness
Ministry roles
- Undertake policy and research:
- Develop policy and implementation advice in response to government priorities
- Identify trends/changes in the municipal, land use planning and building sectors and housing market, including demographics and economic analysis, collecting data and evidence
- Work closely with stakeholders to ensure government policies and programs are responsive and effectively delivered
- Administer legislation that the ministry is responsible for including:
- Municipal Act, 2001
- City of Toronto Act, 2006
- Planning Act, 1990
- Building Code Act, 1992
- Housing Services Act, 2011
- Residential Tenancies Act, 2006
- Build municipal capacity through governance, financial, planning and other advisory services
- Collaborate with other ministries on government initiatives relating to municipal affairs
- Provide qualification and registration services to practitioners within the building sector, such as municipal building officials
- Design and administer programs and agreements including:
- disaster recovery programs for Ontarians and municipalities
- homelessness prevention initiatives
- community housing investments
- ongoing legacy programs (for example, Canada-Ontario Social Housing Agreement, Affordable Housing Program)
- Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services Transfer Administration Agreement
- Build municipal service managers’ delivery and compliance capacity through integrated regional financial, planning and housing advisory services
- Collaborate with other ministries on government initiatives relating to housing, including Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services and Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care regarding supportive housing programs
- Enforce offence provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006
- Provide governance and accountability oversight to applicable provincial agencies and appointments
- Manage inter-governmental relations (municipally and federally)
- Key issue is the implementation of the National Housing Strategy
Ministry legislation
- The ministry administers 49 acts
- Key acts to promote and build municipal capacity, governance and financial sustainability, include:
- Municipal Act, 2001
- City of Toronto Act, 2006
- Municipal Elections Act, 1996
- Municipal Affairs Act, 1990
- Development Charges Act, 1997
- Municipal Tax Assistance Act, 1990
- Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Act, 2006
- Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, 1990
- Key acts to plan and manage sustainable growth include:
- Planning Act, 1990
- Greenbelt Act, 2005
- Places to Grow Act, 2005
- Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, 2001
- The Building Code Act, 1992 helps ensure new buildings are safe, accessible, energy efficient and cost effective
- Two key acts that the ministry administers to support housing are:
- Housing Services Act, 2011 – provides for community-based planning and delivery of housing and homelessness services with general provincial oversight and policy direction
- Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 – provides the legal framework governing landlord and tenant relationships, including the rights and responsibilities of residential landlords and tenants, and the adjudication of disputes
- The ministry’s housing mandate is supported by other acts of other ministries, and by particular acts administered by the ministry in relation to municipal affairs and planning