Municipal and Regional Organization
How to make sense of local municipalities, boroughs, urban areas, regional county municipalities (RCM), metropolitan communities and regional conferences of elected officers?
Quebec’s territory comprises a total of approximately 8 million people, spread in 1100 local municipalities. The 10 biggest municipalities gather almost 50% of Quebec’s total population.
Each local municipality comprises a mayor and a minimum of six councillors. Together, they form the municipal council. The elected representatives may pass by laws governing areas within their jurisdiction, such as urban planning, police, drinking water supply, taxation and property assessment, road networks and community development, recreation and culture. Under the Municipal Powers Act, a provision of a municipal by-law that is inconsistent with a provision of a provincial Act or regulation is inoperative.
Eight local municipalities are divided into boroughs. The purpose of the boroughs is, among other things, to create authorities which can better respond to local conditions, and facilitate management of local services, such as schools, libraries, grocery stores, etc. In the same way as municipalities, some boroughs also have their own councils, which are comprised of councillors elected by local constituents. A borough councillor may also serve as a municipal councillor.
Local municipalities can also be part of the 11 agglomerations of Quebec. Each of them is made up of a central municipality as well as several other municipalities whose borders have been modified following the 2000s municipal reorganization. The agglomerations also have their own council, elected by the residents of the member municipalities. Their jurisdictions include public transportation, police and fire department services and waste management.
In addition to agglomerations, municipalities are grouped in regional county municipalities (RCM), whose purpose is first to promote better communication between local municipalities, then to share public services in the common interest. The council of the RCM includes the mayors of each municipality and their respective representatives. On the 1100 local municipalities, 110 are rather included in a metropolitan community. Quebec has only two, namely, the metropolitan community of Montreal, which includes 82 municipalities, and the metropolitan community of Quebec City, which comprises 28 municipalities. Each metropolitan municipality has its own council, comprised of the various municipal elected representatives.
Lastly, the regional conferences of elected officers (RCEO) refer to the elected officials, representing various socio-economic sectors and aboriginal communities which group together to promote dialogue with the Quebec government on regional development issues.
And Montreal?
Montreal is primarily a city, composed of 19 districts.
Its services cover the whole territory of the Montreal island, which also includes 15 reconstituted cities, which are not part of the city of Montreal, but rather of the Montreal agglomeration.
Montreal is also a metropolitan community (red line), which includes a total of 82 member cities and groups nearly half of the population, the jobs and the GDP of Quebec (2010 data). Lastly, Montreal also includes the Montreal conference of elected officers, whose assembly groups federal, provincial and municipal elected representatives, elected officers from the academic and health sectors, as well as many groups showing an interest in Montreal’s regional organisation.
Image Credits:
The figure of a man standing on a question mark is a courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The map of Montréal is a courtesy of the Ville de Montréal, via the website of the city
The map of Montreal’s buroughs is a courtesy of the ville de Montréal, via its website.
