Natural person powers and the municipality.

• Author: Manderscheid, Donald J.
• Position: FEATURE on the municipal law

In Alberta, municipalities are created and governed by the Municipal Government Act, 2000 (MGA). This statute is unique in that when its initial version was passed in 1994, it was the first legislation of its kind in Canada to have granted natural person powers to the municipality; that is, the power to do anything that a normal human being can do. Since that time, the Provinces of Ontario, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and the Yukon Territory have chosen to follow the Alberta lead and grant natural person powers to the municipality.

In order to understand the role that natural person powers play in the day-to-day government of an Alberta municipality, one must first know how such a municipality operates. In this sense, what are the powers and purposes of the municipality and, then, how do the natural person powers operate within these powers and purposes? In particular, are there any restrictions as to the use by the municipality of natural person powers?

Municipal Powers and Purposes

Statutory Powers and Municipal Purposes

The powers available to a municipality are those expressed or implied by the authorizing statute and those essential to the permitted purposes of the municipality (see Ottawa Electric Light Company v. Ottawa (City of), 1906). Under the Alberta MGA, the powers of the municipality are set out in s. 5(a), which states that a municipality "has the powers given to it by this and other enactments", and by s. 6 in which the municipality has been given the powers of a natural person.

In addition, a municipality may only exercise its powers for municipal purposes (see Shell Canada Products Ltd. v. Vancouver (City of), 1994, decided by the Supreme Court of Canada). In determining the permitted municipal purposes, reference must again be made to the purposes stated in the authorizing statute and to those which are compatible with the purposes and objects of the statute (see Shell). Under the Alberta MGA, the municipal purposes are set out in section 3:

"The purposes of a municipality are

(a) to provide good government,

(b) to provide services, facilities or other things that, in the opinion of council, are necessary or desirable for all or a part of the municipality, and

(c) to develop and maintain safe and viable communities."

The jurisdictional extent to which a municipality may exercise its powers in relation to the municipal purposes was the subject of debate in the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench decision of Peter Kornelson and Oil Sands Hotel (1975) Ltd. v. Wood Buffalo (Regional Municipality of), 1997. In determining this jurisdiction, Justice Mason used the following analysis:

"It seems to me that the proper analysis should be what is, first, the course of conduct and, second, the resulting action or contemplated action of the municipality; whether either puts the municipality outside the express powers or those powers necessarily or fairly implied as incidental and indispensable to the powers expressly granted, or if the course of conduct or the action is outside the express purposes, powers or functions of the municipality...