About 200 of those who lost loved ones in the earthquake, which killed 185 people, heard the apology from Lianne Dalziel on Sunday.
A royal commission in to faulty buildings found serious errors by engineers and the Christchurch City Council.
Julie Hibbs lost her mother, who had been in the CTV building seeing a doctor. She said the apology was good, but what she really wanted was for somebody to be held accountable.
There wouldn't be any closure for her until those responsible for the building's collapse were brought to justice, she said.
"We shouldn't be seeing any names on the wall, I shouldn't be wearing a t-shirt with my mum's face on it. She should be here enjoying life."
Yesterday marked nine years since the 6.2 magnitude earthquake and Julie Hobbs questioned why Dalziel was apologising now.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for some of the CTV families said the council and government needed to do better at identifying quake prone buildings.
Maan Alkaisi was amongst the 200 in Christchurch today and said despite the royal commission findings, faulty buildings were still being approved.
He points to one at 230 High Street that the council signed off on three years ago, that was subsequently found to have 10 serious failings.
"We still have cracks in the system that we have to fill. We simply cannot have another CTV tragedy in Christchurch."
David Selway who lost his sister, Susan Selway in the CTV Building, said it was good to hear a heartfelt apology from the mayor for the role her council played in signing off the building as safe.
"There were buildings in Christchurch where it was known that they had deficiencies and in the CTV building that was absolutely the case. It wouldn't have taken much effort for some flags to be raised from people who knew that there were deficiencies to prevent those deaths. And that's the really sad part."
David Selway said he would also like to hear an apology from the designers of the building.
In a letter to friends and family of those who died, inviting them to today's apology, Dalziel said an apology was something she had wanted to do for a long time.
She said the end of the police inquiry into building failures meant she was finally able to do this.
