Capital District Municipal Council (Ottawa)

The Capital District Municipal Council (CDMC; French: Conseil municipal du district capital, CMDC) is the devolved legislative and administrative body and municipal government of Ottawa, officially the Capital District Municipality of Ottawa, the federal capital and fifth-most populous city of the Canadian Republic.

As Ottawa is a unitary jurisdiction (it is the only locale in Canada which does not form part of any province or territory, consisting of eight boroughs amalgamated into a single incorporated municipal entity), it is administered by a single tier of local government (the CDMC), which exists via statute (namely, the Capital Act, passed by the Parliament of Canada in 1910, which grants the municipality the right to self-government concerning local affairs). This process is identical to the parliamentary process by which Canada's six territories are afforded their autonomy, a process known as devolution. The difference between devolved jurisdictions and federated states (ie. the CDMC and territories on one hand and the provinces on the other) is that devolved polities possess only that autonomy granted to them by the Parliament of Canada, which may be unilaterally revoked at any time, while the provinces are enumerated individually in the Constitution of Canada, which in addition to declaring the shared sovereignty between the federation and the provinces, details Canada's political arrangement as a federal republic by diligently and meticulously delineating the separation of state powers between the federal, provincial and local tiers of government, and defining the unique responsibilities of the each of the three tiers' respective executive departments and agencies. As Ottawa is separate from any province or territory, public administration in the federal capital uniquely functions on a two-tiered hierarchy, meaning all government services and responsibilities not under federal jurisdiction are handled by the Capital District Municipal Council (CDMC), the only municipality in the country directly subordinate to the federal level of government.

The CDMC consists of 16 councillors, two for each borough of Ottawa (one junior councillor and one senior councillor), each of whom are popularly elected by their borough's constituents. At the metropolitan summit (the annual plenary session of the CDMC), the 16 councillors appoint a professional manager as District Manager of Ottawa; the District Manager is responsible for supervising the multiple municipal government departments subordinate to the CDMC, and managing daily executive decisions on behalf of the CDMC, to which the District Manager is answerable.

Executive departments

 * 1) Capital District Department of Health
 * 2) Capital District Department of Justice
 * 3) Capital District Department of Corrections
 * 4) Capital District Department of Public Security
 * 5) Capital District Department of Education
 * 6) Capital District Department of Sanitation
 * 7) Capital District Department of Transportation
 * 8) Capital District Department of Energy
 * 9) Capital District Department of Water
 * 10) Capital District Department of Infrastructure
 * 11) Capital District Department of Parks and Recreation
 * 12) Capital District Department of Culture and Tourism
 * 13) Capital District Department of Economic Development
 * 14) Capital District Department of Federal Liaison
 * 15) Capital District Department of Housing
 * 16) Capital District Department of Urban Planning
 * 17) Capital District Department of Building Safety
 * 18) Capital District Department of Federal Assets
 * 19) Capital District Department of Social Services
 * 20) Capital District Department of Youth and Family Services