Municipality (Canada)

In the Canadian Republic, a municipality constitutes the lower tier of local government within a given administrative county, the latter constituting the upper tier of local government within Canada's 13 provinces. Within the five territories, local government exists in a single-tier form (as opposed to the two-tier form used in the provinces), with municipalities constituting the units of local government directly below and administered by the territories.

Virtually all municipalities use the mayor–council form of government, wherein the municipality's voters elect a mayor, who then appoints the municipal/city council which functions as the mayor's cabinet, as opposed to the council–manager system used by counties.

Provincial municipalities
Within the 13 provinces, municipalities take on a single form, namely an incorporated community with a municipal government of its own led by a mayor, which forms part of a particular county. Two exceptions to this rule exist: the Toronto Metropolis is a merged county–municipality, and Ottawa, the federal capital administered by the Canadian federal government and located outside any province or territory, which functions as a municipality devolved from the federal government, and not part of any county.

Territorial municipalities
Within the five territories, there exist two types of municipalities, which do not overlap in their borders or ever exist one inside another:


 * Local municipality: Consists of urban and semi-urban areas and towns, usually much smaller geographically than regional municipalities.
 * Regional municipality: Consists of large expanses of mostly farmland/rural/forested areas, interspersed with small townships and hamlets, usually much geographically larger but less populous than local municipalities.

In addition, several of the uninhabited expanses of the territories are not part of any municipality, instead administered directly by the territorial government, unlike the provinces, which divide all their land into counties.