Municipal government: get on boards.

• Author: Bowal, Peter
• Position: FEATURE on municipal law

We often wonder how the immense machine of government works. The municipal level of government, whether it is urban (such as a town or city) or rural (municipal district and council), is said to be the "closest to the people". It deals with matters such as parks, utilities (water, electricity, and sewers), the police, garbage collection, fire and ambulance services, traffic and parking, public health, signage, noise, business licensing, sports and recreational facilities, local elections, road building and maintenance, libraries, plant and animal control, public transportation, the arts, and even some social services. There is legislation for each of these subject matters. Public and Roman Catholic schools are operated by local school boards and regional health authorities are governed locally. All of these important domains in our daily lives are delegated by the province to the municipality to manage.

Occasionally, the constitutional limits of other municipal jurisdictions are tested and defined. For example, over the years, various civic authorities have unsuccessfully attempted to regulate prostitution by controlling usage of the streets (see Supreme Court decision in Westendorp v. R. 1983). On the other hand, municipal control of street use to reduce rioting has been found constitutional (see Supreme Court decision in A.G. Can. v. Montreal, 1978).

Municipal Administration

Administration is the day-to-day operation of government. This happens through the creation and implementation of law and policy. Administrative actions seek to balance the private interest of directly affected parties with the public interest of all in the municipality. The decision to require a proposed building to be scaled down in order to better blend into the neighbourhood, for example, is made in the public interest. Everyone applies to the municipal government for a licence or permit or is subject to its administration, such as rules on land development or parking, in innumerable ways.

Administration, which is the implementation and enforcement of the law to countless individual cases, means that there must be an efficient method of processing applications and complaints from citizens of the municipality. Our elected politicians maintain the highest government profile, but they cannot carry out the day-to-day work of implementing the laws and policies that they make. The mayor or councillors cannot take the time to issue business licences or parking tickets...