This paper is an attempt to relate briefly the impact of the Canadian war organization on local governments in Canada; most of the experience and fact are derived from the Province of Ontario although they apply in large measure to the municipalities throughout Canada. In the course of the paper some criticisms will be made, not for the sake of being critical, but in the hope that they may influence coming developments.
In view of the confusion that seems to exist concerning the functions of municipal government, the division of constitutional powers in Canada is relevant and may be reviewed briefly. The British North America Act formally establishes only two divisions of government—the Dominion and the provinces. The provinces, under section 92, sub-section 8, are given exclusive power over “municipal institutions in the Province.” Certain other matters of local importance such as licences, charities, hospitals, and asylums, are also given to the provinces. These specific items along with the allocation generally of “all matters of a merely local or private nature” have been taken as indicating that the traditional social services in the first instance are a provincial responsibility although in fact they have been shared with the local government from the beginning. It is thus clear from the British North America Act that municipal institutions are under the province and are legally the creation of the province. Naturally, the experience has not been the same in all provinces and some have gone further than others in the development of local government. But one thing is clear: the provinces are familiar with the municipal governments which they have created; they have worked with them, they have argued with them, and they understand them. They appreciate that they are, to use the words of the sixteenth-century poet, “a proud and yet a wretched thing.”