The Baldwin Act

9 Pages 2290 Words

between two elected governing bodies. Early municipal roles were much more simple and straightforward then they are today, but they were dependent on much the same source of revenue as modern municipalities. Although modern municipalities receive much more assistance from the provinces as well as the federal government then did their early counterparts, they have very few new ways of generating substantial revenue other then through property tax.

Since the Baldwin act, the provinces have tightened their grip mainly in times where municipalities were in a state of great financial need, or where the demand on them seemed to exceed their functional ability. “The department of municipal affairs was formed within a number of provinces by the turn of the century.” This was intended to “give leadership and guidance in municipal development and to provide for the continuous study of the problems of the municipalities.” “Manitoba established a Department of Municipal Commissioner as early as 1886, with Saskatchewan following suit in 1908 and Alberta in 1911. British Columbia appointed an Inspector of Municipalities in 1914, but a full department was not created until 1934. Ontario’s experience was somewhat similar, with an office of Provincial-Municipal Auditor as early as 1897 and a Bureau of Municipal Affairs from 1917, but no department until 1935. The same year Nova Scotia created a Department of Municipal Affairs and in 1936 New Brunswick established a Department of Education, Federal, and Municipal Relations.” The provinces put these departments in place to accommodate for “rapid development of local government institutions and a sudden expansion of population.”

The Depression of the 1930’s led to the next era in tightening of provincial control over municipal finance. In response to “municipal defaulting on financial obligations, provincial governments established or expanded not only municipa...