A mayor serves as head of the government, while a city council of about a dozen or more members act as the legislature. Municipal politics does not receive much coverage from the Canadian media and turnout in Canadian municipal elections tends to be very low. Partially as a result, Canadian mayors and councillors often serve long terms with very high rates of re-election.
In many provinces, voters also elect various other boards and councils to assist the municipal government in specific areas, for example, a school board , library board , transportation board or parks board.
In other places, these boards may be directly appointed by the city council itself. A map of the Region of Waterloo , a region in Ontario comprised of seven municipalities. Their regional government consists of eight elected councillors and one elected chair, along with the mayors of the seven component municipalities. Between the authority of a province and a city sit what are known as regional governments , a sort of middle layer of government that tends to be the most obscure and unknown of the three.
A region also known as a county , division , or district , depending on the province unifies several cities into one larger, geographic community. The primary purpose of regional government is to coordinate the delivery of certain public services offered by the cities under its jurisdiction, such as garbage collection and sewer maintenance, in a more efficient way.
Regional governments address issues that need to be handled at a higher level than cities or towns, but are still not quite important enough for the province to manage. Often run by an appointed regional board of individuals chosen by the city councils of its member municipalities, regional governments are so obscure their activities are rarely covered in much detail by the Canadian news media , and tend to be mainly of interest to city employees and municipal bureaucrats.
The Legislative Assembly of the province of Saskatchewan, located in the provincial capital of Regina. Every province has an in-house representative of the Queen, known as the lieutenant-governor of the province. He or she is a local notable person appointed by the prime minister of Canada to perform certain ceremonial functions, similar to what the Governor General of Canada does at the national level.
Seen here, J. Grant b. Canada's three northern territories are not provinces, and have "territorial governments" instead. While at one time there were a lot of important constitutional differences between the two, these days the only real difference between a provincial and territorial government is that a provincial lieutenant-governor is called a commissioner.
The legislatures of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut do not use political parties, but the legislature of the Yukon territory does. Next Chapter. The model has also been applied outside the metropolitan areas to strengthen or replace existing county government as in Ontario or to create a new level of regional municipal government as in BC.
The creation of new units of regional municipal government reflects a more general tendency in the past few decades to enlarge the scale of local administration. Health, education and welfare administration - traditionally entrusted to special-purpose local authorities - has generally been regionalized, if not provincialized. Thus the independent local authorities that remain in these fields tend to be on a larger scale.
While consolidation becomes an increasingly frequent occurrence, there are still some municipal governments in Canada, and new ones continue to be formed. It is difficult for provincial governments to persuade local communities to take responsibility for their own affairs without organizing municipal councils. Once created, these councils become symbols of local autonomy and are not easily eliminated. To those concerned about comprehensive planning and administrative co-ordination, the fragmentation of authority at the local level among thousands of municipalities and even more numerous special-purpose bodies is the source of much anxiety.
However, it is not clear that consolidation would increase the efficiency or effectiveness of local government, because bureaucratic centralization creates its own problems. Whatever advantage there is in the present system arises from the opportunities it affords for local initiative and citizen participation. To simplify present arrangements and consolidate authority in the hands of strong regional councils would be to close off many of these opportunities.
This may occur regardless, but so long as the demand remains for effective local control over local public activities, the system of government at this level will remain as complex as it is now. Search The Canadian Encyclopedia. Remember me. I forgot my password. Why sign up? Create Account. Suggest an Edit. Enter your suggested edit s to this article in the form field below.
Accessed 13 January Local Government. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published February 07, ; Last Edited December 16, The Canadian Encyclopedia. Thank you for your submission Our team will be reviewing your submission and get back to you with any further questions. Thanks for contributing to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Article by Warren Magnusson. Local Government Local government is the level of government below the provinces. Further Reading C.
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