Power and Purpose: The Quiet Evolution of Canadian Municipal Law

Zack Taylor, Craig Mutter, Joseph Lyons and Alec Dobson
Additional contact information
Alec Dobson: University of Toronto

No 74, IMFG Papers from University of Toronto, Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance

Abstract: Local government is a vital part of Canada’s multi-level democracy. It provides a voice for the needs, desires, and aspirations of local communities and shapes the environments in which we live. Amidst growing calls for greater local autonomy and expanded local powers and resources, this paper contributes a comparative overview of municipal law in Canada’s ten provinces and three territories. We find that Canadian municipal law has experienced a quiet evolution over the past 40 years. The scope of municipal legal authority has expanded considerably as provinces and territories 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, both in law and in practice, among and within provinces and territories. We conclude that the practical potential of this wave of legislative reform is not fully known and may be unrealized, and requires further research.

Keywords: municipal governance; municipal powers; Canada; municipal law; intergovernmental relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 H70 H77 K11 K15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 69 pages
Date: 2026-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published online

Downloads: (external link)
https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/server/api/core/bits ... 63d01af494a1/content First version, 2026

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:74

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 ().