And you, will you vote in municipal elections?

You may have seen, as we have seen on television or on social networks, playful video clips on the municipal elections of November 7. Capsules that are part of a larger campaign launched by Elections Quebec, a relevant campaign given the notoriously low rate of participation in municipal elections, not to mention the impact that the pandemic could have.

Several examples of municipal services are set out in these capsules, with the aim of making us understand that the municipal sector matters; roads, green spaces, recycling, playgrounds, street cleaning, municipal taxes, dog parks, public transportation, residential development, fire service, water treatment, bike paths, snow removal, libraries, community gardens and permits construction.

The list is long, but it could go on for a long time, as the services and subjects falling wholly or in part to municipalities are numerous.

Think, for example, of hot topics like the housing crisis or the post-COVID-19 recovery, but also all kinds of other issues, ranging from the ban on single-use plastic bags or pesticides to supervision of front vegetable gardens or self-service electric scooters, including the issue of urban chickens and the microchipping of domestic animals.

Municipal autonomy

If this list is diverse and evolving, it is no accident. As researchers and lawyers, we are interested in the evolution of municipal competences in the country and we note that for the last 25 years, two movements, one legislative (therefore led by elected officials), the other judicial (therefore led by judges), promote municipal autonomy. This reality, which we will explain below, justifies in our opinion that more attention be paid to local affairs, but also that the importance of the municipal world in citizen life is reflected by a higher rate of participation in municipal elections. .

It is first of all essential to remember that municipalities do not exist in Canadian constitutional law and are rather considered as one area of ​​provincial jurisdiction among others, according to the Constitution Act, 1867. The municipalities therefore act as extensions of the provinces to manage their territory and have the only powers that the provinces decide to grant them.

That said, most provinces have chosen in turn, led by Alberta in 1994, to place greater trust in local authorities by giving them more flexibility, leeway and legal powers.

In Quebec, this was notably the case with the adoption of the Municipal Powers Act. Coming into force in 2006, the law attributes broad powers to Quebec municipalities in eight areas, including the environment, sanitation, nuisances and safety. It gives municipalities greater flexibility to manage current or future problems in these areas, without having to ask the provincial legislator each time to amend the laws that govern them. Previously (and this is still true in several areas), laws granting powers to municipalities listed at length, in detail and restrictively everything that a municipality could do, which was not included in them and was beyond their purview. This is therefore a major paradigm shift.

At the judicial level, the Supreme Court of Canada, through various decisions, has also contributed directly, since the 1990s, to municipal empowerment, in particular by making attempts to invalidate the regulations adopted by local authorities more difficult. In view of the proximity link between municipalities and citizens, and the democratic nature of municipal life, the Court insisted on the importance of leaving the councils the latitude necessary to act in the public interest. Quickly, other courts, from appeal courts to municipal courts, followed the new course set out by the highest court in the country. The decision rendered by the Superior Court confirming the validity of a by-law of the municipality of Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville protecting natural environments is a recent example.

Obviously, obstacles remain to municipal autonomy, in Quebec as in the other provinces, inevitable limits in the current constitutional configuration where the provinces can always have the last word. The fact remains that our municipalities play an important and growing role in our lives and that they have legal leeway that they simply did not have before. Isn’t it in our interest to pay them as much attention, both on a daily basis and in the election campaign, as at the federal and provincial levels? Isn’t it therefore in our interest to assert our voice on November 7? To ask these questions is also to answer them.

* The authors are members of the Barreau du Québec

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