Municipality in a Federal State

10 Local Government Systems

Case Studies

Commonalities and Differcences

Canada
A training by MonTi – ada.monti@outlook.com

Federal Law Academy – Legal Aid Network

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Montreal – City Hall

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Surrey – City Hall

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Robert Baldwin 1804 - 1858

The Baldwin Act in 1849

made municipal
government truly
democratic rather than an
extension of central
control of the British
Empire.

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1849 Montreal parliament burnt down by republican revolutionaries 7 / 24
 general structure

Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and

three territories and has three levels of government;
federal, provincial and municipal.

Provinces / states have more autonomy than territories,

having responsibility for social programs such as health
care, education, and welfare.

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 Municipal Government

Municipal Government is a type of local council authority that

provides local services, facilities, safety and infrastructure for
communities.

The municipal government is quoted only once in the 1867

Constitution Act, in an article that gives legislative powers to the
federal state over municipal institutions.

The general hierarchy was established in 1849 with the passing

of the Municipal Corporations Act.

The largest municipalities are usually called cities, and their

governments city councils.

Smaller governments are commonly called towns, villages,

parishes, rural municipalities, townships or hamlets. 9 / 24
 3 or 4 levels of government

There are about 3,700 municipal governments in Canada.

Municipalities may be established by a provincial / state or

territorial / state authority.

In some states, several municipalities in a particular area

are also part of an upper level of municipal government,
which provides more regionally-oriented services.

Depending on the state, this level may be called a county,

regional municipality, regional district or regional county
municipality.
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 municipal power structure 1

The mayor may be high profile but, in fact, has little power
independent of the municipal council.

The mayor is elected by all inhabitants of the municipality

while the councilors are elected in smaller territories named
wards.

Council members generally run for office / participate in elections

as individuals, rather than as part of a political party.
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 municipal power structure 2

The council has the legislative power.

In some state the executive powers are delegated to a

Central Administrative Officer CAO while in others to a
Board of Commissioners.

Both the CAO and the commissioners are responsible for

the administration and are accountable to the council.

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 municipal power structure 3

Most municipal councils establish committees to direct and

control the public service.
Each committee makes recommendations to the municipal
council.
Committees deal with issues ranging from transportation to
policing to finances.

Moreover many municipalities have more or less independent

library boards, water utility commissions, transit authorities, police
commissions, parks boards and conservation authorities, etc.

This bodies are often nominated by the state, depending on his

laws, while the school boards in many municipalities are elected
together with the council. 13 / 24
 municipal power structure 4

Under a board of commissioners system, a

management group of three or four commissioners is
appointed, one of whom becomes the chief
commissioner.

Each commissioner is responsible for a broad range

of interrelated responsibilities including a group of
departments.
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 taxes 1

% of GDP municipality state federal state

tax revenue 7.75 20.32 13.84
expenditure 8.21 22.40 13.74
OECD 2014

Together, the states collect more revenue than the

federal state, an almost unique structure among
federations in the world.

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taxes 2

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 powers and functions

● Transportation: small roads and tracks, bus and train.

● Education management and school boards.
● Land planning and development, construction permit.
● Public utilities and other services like parks and in
some states sewerage, water, electricity, telephone,
gas services, etc.

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 police

Smaller municipalities often contract police service from the

state policing authority, while larger ones maintain their own
forces.

Most of the states contract out their provincial law-

enforcement responsibilities to the RCMP/GRC (Royal
Canadian Mounted Police/Gendarmerie Royale du Canada;
popularly known in English-speaking areas as the
Mounties), the national police force, which is commissioned
to the federal level of government.

Most urban areas have been given the authority by the

states to maintain their own police force.
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 conflicts in between municipalities and states

For conflicts with the federal state there are many levels of
jurisdiction depending on the structure of power sharing in
between municipalities, state and federal state.

In between municipalities and state a state ombudsman is the

first level of judiciary power.

i.e. The Alberta Ombudsman is an Officer of the Legislative

Assembly of Alberta, reporting directly to the Assembly.
The Ombudsman is impartial, operating independently from the
Alberta government, political parties and individual elected
officials.

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 natural resources

The forest sector directly accounts for over 20% of the income in
171 municipalities across Canada.

There are both federal and state laws about forest management
and environmental preservation.

Other natural resources are managed directly under the law of

the federal state and the administration of the states.

States have most of the powers related to natural resources.

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 indigenous people 1

In Canada, an Indian band or band, sometimes styled

as a First Nation band or simply a First Nation, is the
basic unit of government for indigenous peoples.

Each First Nation is typically represented by a band

council chaired by an elected chief, and sometimes also
a hereditary chief.

As of 2013 there were 614 bands in Canada.

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 indigenous people 2

Many First Nation's Reserves have their own police forces

established through agreements between the governing
Native Band, province and the federal government.

First Nations have in recent times share the revenues from

natural resource extraction.

i.e. On October 23, 2008, the British Columbia government

announced that it will institute a process to enable First
Nations to share revenue from new mining projects.

The revenue-sharing process will be decided on a project-

by-project basis. 22 / 24
relations in between municipalities

FCM has been the national voice

of municipal government since
1901, representing today 90 per
cent of Canada's municipal
population.
Members include Canada's
largest cities, small urban and
rural communities, and 20
provincial and territorial municipal
associations.
Municipal leaders from all parts of
Canada assemble annually to
establish FCM policy on key
issues. 23 / 24
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Canada poutine