Regional county municipality
Regional county municipalities of Quebec | |
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Location | Province of Quebec |
Number | 87 |
Populations | 7,082 (L'Île-d'Orléans) – 171,443 (Roussillon) |
Government |
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Subdivisions |
The term regional county municipality or RCM (French: municipalité régionale de comté, MRC) is used in Quebec, Canada to refer to one of 87 county-like political entities.[1] In some older English translations they were called county regional municipality.
Regional county municipalities are a supralocal type of regional municipality, and act as the local municipality in unorganized territories within their borders. The system of regional county municipalities was introduced beginning in 1979 to replace the historic counties of Quebec.[2] In most cases, the territory of an RCM corresponds to that of a census division; however, there are a few exceptions.
Some local municipalities are outside any regional county municipality (hors MRC). This includes some municipalities within urban agglomerations and also some aboriginal lands, such as Indian reserves that are enclaves within the territory of an RCM but not juridically part of it. Where complete territorial coverage is desired, for example for the census, the Indian reserve enclaves are added in to create "geographical RCMs", and the urban agglomerations are considered to be "territories equivalent to an RCM".
RCMs as political entities
Governance and responsibilities
The council of a RCM is composed of the mayors of the member municipalities as well as the warden. The warden is usually elected by and from the council by secret ballot. Universal suffrage may also be used. The warden's term is two years when elected by council or four years when elected by universal suffrage.
A MRC must:
- manage land use by creating a land use scheme and revise it every five years;
- establish a plan for waste management, fire protection, and civil protection (police);
- apply the land use scheme;
- make and administer urban planning rules in unorganized territories;
- see to the proper functioning of watercourses in its territory, especially those used for agricultural drainage;
- prepare the evaluation rolls for local municipalities;
- sell buildings for property tax default;
- name or create, and fund, a local development centre to support regional businesses.
Municipalities not belonging to an RCM
RCMs, in their definition as political units, do not cover the entire territory of Quebec. The local municipalities of Quebec (and equivalent Aboriginal territories) not belonging to an RCM fall into the following categories:
- all Indian reserves;
- 14 cities and urban agglomerations which do not belong to any RCM because they themselves exercise some or all of the powers which are normally those of an RCM (a city or agglomeration in some cases exercises only some of these powers because some RCM powers are in turn delegated to a metropolitan community), namely the:
- urban agglomeration of Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec
- urban agglomeration of Quebec
- city of Lévis
- city of Shawinigan
- city of Trois-Rivières
- city of Sherbrooke
- urban agglomeration of Longueuil
- city of Laval
- urban agglomeration of Montreal
- city of Mirabel
- city of Gatineau
- city of Rouyn-Noranda
- urban agglomeration of La Tuque
- city of Saguenay;
- urban agglomeration of
- all the municipalities of the administrative region; and
- the parish municipality of Notre-Dame-des-Anges.
RCMs as geographical units
For provincial statistical purposes, the Institut de la Statistique du Québec uses the following system so that the entire territory of Quebec is divided into 104 units known as municipalités régionales de comté géographiques (MRCG) "geographical regional county municipalities".
Indian reserves which would, but for their status as Indian reserves, belong to a certain RCM in the political sense are included in the geographical RCM corresponding to that RCM. There are 86 MRCGs of this kind, one for each RCM. The rest of the province is grouped into 16 "
- The 14 cities and urban agglomerations not belonging to an RCM (see above) each form their own TE, except that:
- the TE of Wendake; and
- the TE of urban agglomeration of La Tuqueand three Indian reserves.
- the TE of
- The administrative regionis divided into three TEs as follows:
- The TE of northern villages and Inuit reserved lands, the only Naskapi village in the province, and two unorganized territories.
- The TE of Cree reserved lands. Local administration of the new TE is shared by Cree and non-Natives, essentially along pre-2012 lines.
- The TE of Eeyou Istchee James Bay Territory, which is the territory outside the four non-Aboriginal municipalities which is jointly governed and managed by the Cree of Eeyou Istchee TE and the non-Cree of Jamésie TE.
- The TE of
Census divisions
Census divisions (CDs) are used for statistical purposes by Statistics Canada. Quebec is divided into 98 CDs, each of which is assigned a unique two-digit geographical code. For the most part, Census Divisions consist of a single RCM or TE (territory equivalent to an RCM), exactly as defined above. The only exceptions are five census divisions divided into 11 RCMs or TEs, two or three each. For a list, see List of regional county municipalities and equivalent territories in Quebec used as census divisions.
Geographical code of Quebec
All local municipalities, equivalent Aboriginal territories, Indian settlements and unorganized territories in Quebec are assigned a unique five-digit geographical code. The first two digits are the code of the census division in which the municipality is located. For a list of all municipalities in Quebec together with their
See also
- Administrative divisions of Quebec
- Census geographic units of Canada
- Classification of municipalities in Quebec
- List of regional county municipalities and equivalent territories in Quebec
- Local municipality (Quebec)
- Township, an equivalent type of municipal government in Ontario
References
- ^ "Regional County Municipality - RCM (Municipalité régionale de comté - MRC) - Évaluateurs Agrées Montreal PMEA - Glossary - Regional County Municipality - RCM (Municipalité régionale de comté - MRC)". www.pmea.ca. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
- ^ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (2021-11-17). "Dictionary, Census of Population, 2021 – Regional county municipality (RCM)". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved 2024-03-07.