Lesson 5 — Activity 1:

Organization of Municipal Governments

Warm Up

You know that many people work together to make Canada and its provinces function. Within provinces, however, local governments are needed to meet the needs of each community. These vary greatly depending on location, size, resources, climate, and landscape. This local government is considered to be a municipal government.

public domain

"Ambassador Jacobson with University of Calgary First Nations student leader Thomas Snow.

A big difference between a municipal government and the provincial or federal governments is that no political parties operate at this level. Citizens elect people to be responsible for local government. Each candidate is independent. Municipal governments have a central leader (mayor or reeve) and a group of elected people to help organize the various sections (municipal council).

The following charts show the main types of local/municipal governments in Alberta.

Some areas are either so sparsely populated or are home to special groups that they fall into another category of government. Generally, these special areas are under the responsibility of the provincial minister in charge of municipal affairs. In reality, representatives are appointed in each of these areas to oversee and maintain the affairs. This is because one minister cannot live in all these regions to understand the needs of the people who live there.

Citizens can make sure they have a successful community by reading about the various candidates, attending debates, speaking to the candidates, and then voting in elections to decide who will run their local governments.