Government in Canada

Government in Canada

GOVERNMENT IN CANADA

The Constitution of Canada divided the responsibilities of the Government into federal and provincial jurisdictions. It also provided for the possibility of the provincial governments to delegate some of its responsibilities to a municipal government.

  • Federal Government
  • Provincial and Territorial Government
  • Municipal Government

The Federal Government is seated in Ottawa and is headed by the Governor General of Canada on the advice of the Prime Minister. Its responsibilities include:

  • Defense,
  • criminal law,
  • employment insurance,
  • postal service,
  • census,
  • copyrights,
  • trade regulation,
  • external relations,
  • money and banking,
  • transportation,
  • citizenship, and
  • Indian affairs.

The Constitution also specified that every issue not mentioned as belonging to the provincial or territorial governments comes under the power of the Federal Government.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

Please click on a section of government for more information

Canada is a Constitutional Monarchy where the Head of State is a Monarch but the powers of the Monarch are defined in a legal document called a Constitution. As in many Constitutional Monarchies, there is a clear separation in roles between the Head of State and the Head of Government. Canada's Head of State is the head of the Commonwealth who is represented in Canada by the Governor General. The Governor General is appointed by The Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister; Canada's Head of Government is the Prime Minister who is the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons. The Leader of the Official Opposition is the leader of the party with the second most number of seats in the House of Commons. Most government officials in Canada have various titles that come with the job and these officials are all put into an Order of Precedence.

  • The Parliament of Canada consists of an upper house, called the Senate, and a lower house, called the House of Commons. Each session of Parliament begins with a Speech from the Throne. There are many interesting statistics about Parliamentarians in Canada - read all about it in
  • The Parliament of Canada consists of an upper house, called the Senate, and a lower house, called the House of Commons. Each session of Parliament begins with a Speech from the Throne.

The Government's key players also include members of the Cabinet who are the heads of the various Ministries or government departments as well as the Prime Minister's Office and the Privy Council which house advisors to the government on policy matters.

The Judiciary System in Canada is separate from the legislative branch of the government. The court system at the federal level is comprised of the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal which handles civil and criminal matters of federal jurisdiction, the Tax Court which handles all appeals of the tax system and employment insurance matters, and the Supreme Court which acts as the final arbiter of appeals of any other court in the country

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

Provincial government in Canada is responsible for property and civil rights, administration of justice, natural resources and the environment, education, health, and welfare. Each province's government structure may be slightly different from each other, but the fundamentals are identified in the chart below. The main differences are:

  1. in the legislative branch, just one house instead of two (styled the Legislative Assembly, House of Assembly, or National Assembly, depending on the province);
  2. in the executive branch, different names for the Provincial Heads of State (Lieutenant Governor instead of Governor General) and Heads of Government (Premier instead of Prime Minister); and
  3. in the judicial branch, various court structures for each province (the Ontario court structure is the one shown below).

The Provincial and Territorial Governments currently number ten and three, respectively. Each has its own capital city and is headed by a Lieutenant Governor (provinces) or a Commissioner (territories) on the advice of a Premier (provinces) or a Government Leader (territories). A province exists in its own right, a creation of the Constitution Acts, 1867 - 1982. A territory, however, is created through federal law. As a result, Crown lands in the territories are retained by the federal government in the Crown in right of Canada. This differs from the provinces, which own provincial lands in the Crown in right of the province. Secondly, in a territory, federal Parliament may enter into provincial-type affairs, such as school curriculum. Thirdly, territorial governments are not included in the Constitutional amending formula — the way we decide if we want to change something in the Canadian Constitution. Provinces get a vote when a change is proposed — territories do not. In general, provincial and territorial responsibilities include:

  • Property and civil rights,
  • Administration of justice,
  • Natural resources and the environment,
  • Education,
  • Health, and welfare.

Municipal Governments are essential "creatures" of the provincial or territorial governments. The latter can create, modify, or eliminate a municipal government at will and controls exactly which powers a municipal government is entitled to execute. There are hundreds of municipalities in each province and territory and are labeled in many different forms. "Upper tier" municipalities include Regions, Counties, and Districts and are headed by a Chair or a Warden. "Lower tier" municipalities which exist within an upper tier include Cities, Towns, Townships, and Municipalities and are headed by a Mayor or a Reeve. Their responsibilities vary from location to location but generally include:

  • Water
  • Sewage,
  • Waste collection,
  • Public transit,
  • Land use planning,
  • Libraries,
  • Emergency services,
  • Animal control, and
  • Economic development.
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