Council

Who decides, and how you can hold them to account

Sault Ste Marie is run by an elected council of 11 people. They set the budget, approve big purchases and hire the senior staff who run the city day to day.

Current council

• MayorMatthew Shoemaker
• Councillor, Ward 1Sandra Hollingsworths.hollingsworth@cityssm.on.ca
• Councillor, Ward 1Sonny Spinas.spina@cityssm.on.ca
• Councillor, Ward 2Luke Dufourl.dufour@cityssm.on.ca
• Councillor, Ward 2Lisa Vezeau-Allenl.vezeauallen@cityssm.on.ca
• Councillor, Ward 3Angela Caputoangela.caputo@cityssm.on.ca
• Councillor, Ward 3Ron Zagordor.zagordo@cityssm.on.ca
• Councillor, Ward 4Marchy Brunim.bruni@cityssm.on.ca
• Councillor, Ward 4Stephan Kinachs.kinach@cityssm.on.ca
• Councillor, Ward 5Corey Gardic.gardi@cityssm.on.ca
• Councillor, Ward 5Matthew Scottm.scott@cityssm.on.ca

Names and official email addresses from the city's council page. None of the members lists a public social media account there.

Top number: pay. Second number: benefits and expenses together, such as health cover, mileage, conferences and training. Exactly what goes in it differs a little from city to city; the note below says what this city’s statement includes. Some members take the city’s health plan and some do not, so a higher second number is not a problem by itself. The statements give only totals; the receipts behind them can be requested from the clerk.

Each year links to the city's statement. From the City's "Summary of Remuneration and Expenses" for Mayor and Council, the newest we found (2022) and the year before (2021). "Pay" is the honorarium. "Other" is car allowance, cell phone and conference travel, worked out by us as the printed total less the honorarium. Names are printed as the City prints them: initials and surname. The 2022 summary lists two mayors and several members with small amounts (about $2,215 each) who appear to have served only part of the year; the summary does not say when anyone served. We did not find summaries for 2023, 2024 or 2025.

• Yes
  Budgets posted online

  The 2026 preliminary budget book, departmental budgets, final operating summary, final capital budget and tax levy summary are posted as PDFs, with the same for earlier years back to 2016. Source

• Yes
  Audited financial statements

  The 2025 consolidated statements carry a clean opinion ("present fairly") from KPMG LLP dated July 27, 2026. The 2024 statements carry a clean opinion from the same auditor dated July 16, 2025. Statements are posted back to 2019. Source

• Partly
  Quarterly financial reports

  Quarterly reports compare each department's spending with its budget. The newest one on the budget page is the third quarter of 2025. We did not find a fourth-quarter 2025 report or any 2026 quarter on that page. Source

• Partly
  Council pay and expenses

  The budget page links a "City Council Remuneration and Expenses" summary under 2021 and under 2022. We did not find one for 2023, 2024 or 2025 on that page. Source

• Unknown
  Meeting agendas and minutes

  The City says agendas go online the Thursday before a meeting and minutes follow Council's approval, and lists meetings through December 7, 2026. We did not open any agenda or minutes, so we did not check how current they are. Source

• Unknown
  Tender results

  The City posts and manages tenders through a Bids & Tenders portal. We did not read it, so we do not know whether winning bids and amounts are published. Source

• City of Sault Ste. Marie on YouTube

  The City says council meetings can be viewed live on its YouTube channel. We did not check whether past meeting videos are kept there.

1. Integrity Commissioner

   An independent officer who reports to Council and oversees the Code of Conduct for members of Council. The page lists annual reports for 2018, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2023. We did not find a report for a later year.