Municipal Governments

Municipalities are optimally positioned to protect their citizens by decriminalizing the simple possession of controlled substances. Studies have shown that Black and Indigenous communities are disproportionately targeted for policing and penalized under punitive drug laws. Additionally, safe injection sites and harm reduction strategies have been found to be more effective strategies for assisting those with substance use issues. Although the federal government has not enacted a comprehensive decriminalization strategy, it has empowered municipalities to do so. Under section 56 (1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, municipalities may request the federal government to suspend provisions of the act that pertain to the possession of a controlled substance. This request can be made by local medical health officers, municipal boards of health, or via a city council motion; in other words, although the request can be made via a city council motion, such a motion is not a pre-requisite. 

Section 56 (1) gives municipalities the following power: 

“The Minister may, on any terms and conditions that the Minister considers necessary, exempt from the application of all or any of the provisions of this Act or the regulations any person or class of persons or any controlled substance or precursor or any class of either of them if, in the opinion of the Minister, the exemption is necessary for a medical or scientific purpose or is otherwise in the public interest.”

Another way in which municipalities have engaged in significant reform is by declaring themselves sanctuary cities. A sanctuary city is a city where access to city services is not dependent on proof of immigration status and where information sharing between city service providers and immigration officials is severely limited. Toronto developed such a policy in 2013 with their Access T.O. initiative. Sanctuary city policies can be a means of filling gaps in Canadian immigration policies that marginalize individuals with precarious immigrations statuses. However, the fact that these initiatives are limited by geographic area and may be subject to statutory limitations illustrates that advocacy at the municipal level should be coupled with federal and provincial efforts to ensure that more people are protected.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated, access to reliable internet services is increasingly being recognized as a basic necessity. In addition to allowing children to attend school and allowing women to work remotely, access to affordable and stable internet is of particular importance when it comes to combatting violence against women, as it can reduce the isolation of women experiencing intimate partner violence by connecting them to family, friends, and service providers. Read the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres’ study on Using Technology to Better Support Survivors for more information on the benefits and challenges regarding the role of technology in ending violence against women.

Despite the importance of internet connectivity, many Canadians lack affordable and reliable access. Municipalities can play an important role in facilitating this access for their citizens. The City of Toronto’s ConnectTO initiative is an example of a municipality attempting to ensure that citizens have a better access to internet service. This initiative will see the creation of a city-wide broadband network. The money it generates will be reinvested into the community to further expand access to internet service. 

Rural municipalities remain underserved when it comes to internet access, making this an important site of feminist law reform. Click here to read the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ submission to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on the challenges of bringing broadband internet access to rural municipalities.

In collaboration with federal and provincial governments, municipalities have an important role to play in furthering climate justice. Women are disproportionately affected by climate change, and they have been on the front lines of climate justice advocacy. For more information about climate justice through the lens of feminist law reform, check out NAWL's mini-course on Women's Rights & the Climate Crisis.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has released a video series on ways that municipalities can get involved to address climate change. Click here to watch the series. An example of a municipality taking action on climate change is the City of St. John’s in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Visit this link to see their multipronged approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which includes landfill gas capture, heat recovery systems for city-owned facilities, sustainable transportation, and the promotion of composting. Zoning laws are another tool that municipalities can utilize to combat climate change. Click here to see British Columbia’s toolkit on how zoning can be used to combat climate change. 

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities may be able to offer grants or loans to help municipalities achieve their climate goals. Click here to see what funding might be available for your community.