Power and Purpose:Canadian Municipal Law in Transition

Zack Taylor and Alec Dobson
Additional contact information
Zack Taylor: University of Western Ontario
Alec Dobson: Western University

No 47, IMFG Papers from University of Toronto, Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance

Abstract: This overview of municipal law in Canada’s 10 provinces identifies similarities and variations among and within provinces in the articulation of municipal purposes and the provincial-municipal relationship, municipal powers and jurisdiction, the organization of municipal institutions, and finance. The paper also comments on asymmetrical arrangements for large cities, commonly referred to as city charters. Far from being static, Canadian municipal law is in a period of transition. The legal scope of municipal authority has expanded over the past 25 years as most provinces have revised their general municipal acts and adopted special laws for major cities. While the overall trend has been toward more permissive authority and the recognition of municipalities as democratic, accountable, and responsible governments, there are significant variations across the provinces, and some have gone further than others in expanding the legal authority of municipalities. We conclude that the practical potential of this wave of legislative reform remains unknown and perhaps unrealized, and requires further research.

Keywords: Municipal; governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 H70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 80 pages
Date: 2020-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published online

Downloads: (external link)
https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/ ... se_Taylor_Dobson.pdf First version, 2020

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mfg:wpaper:47

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMFG Papers from University of Toronto, Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Enid Slack ().