page_title: Municipal government in Canada
section_title: Structure and funding
hierarchical_section_title: Municipal government in Canada / Structure and funding
caption_attribution_description: English: A pie chart of the funding sources of the Canadian municipal governments in 2005.
context_page_description: In Canada, municipal government is a type of local council authority that provides local services, facilities, safety and infrastructure for communities. Canada has three levels of government; federal, provincial and municipal. According to Section 92 of the Constitution Act, 1867, "In each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to... Municipal Institutions in the Province." There are about 3,700 municipal governments in Canada. Municipal governments are established under provincial/territorial authority. the municipal government elects representatives at municipal level is called a councillor or alderman
context_section_description: Most local governments are formed by a charter or act granted by the province or territory. Local governments are not mentioned in the Canadian Constitution other than to say they are the responsibility of the provinces. Consequently, municipalities can be created, amalgamated, or disbanded at the whim of the provincial government which controls them.  They are also limited in the amount of interaction they have with the federal government because this would infringe upon an area of provincial jurisdiction. The federal government does fund quite a few projects in many cities, like major transit and roads. These funds come from a variety of federal programs like P3 Canada, where a private company/consortia does a percentage of a project, construction, operations, maintenance, financing and designing, the Building Canada Fund, where major projects can receive federal funds for a project. Unlike many US projects and cities, most projects only get approximately a quarter of their funds from the federal government, and they are not obligated to have a certain amount of the work done by Canadians or Canadian companies.
  Since each province is responsible for creating local governments in its own territory, the names, functions, and powers of local bodies vary widely across the country.  Local governments generally have limited powers, namely creating local by-laws and taxation (property tax).
  Typically, a municipal government is made up of one mayor (occasionally reeve or warden) and a set number of councillors (occasionally alderman). There are usually 10−20 councillors in one council, however an exception to this is Montreal, with over 50 councillors. The councillors may represent districts called wards.
  In Canada, 83% of the municipal government revenue is raised through their own sources, and legally their accounts cannot go into deficit, safeguarding the provinces from unintentionally guaranteeing their municipal governments' debts. The majority of funding for Canadian municipal governments comes from property taxes. Additional funding sources include the sales of goods and services, fines and tax transfers from the provincial government.
caption: Municipal government funding sources, 2005
exif: {}