Mrinali Anchan · CBC News

· Posted: Oct 04, 2025 11:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: October 4

Snow clearing, health care and immigration are often tackled by three distinct levels of government — but do you know who handles what?

With a municipal election set for Oct. 20, CBC Edmonton hit the streets to gauge how informed people are when it comes to understanding the different levels of government and their responsibilities.

"I'm a lawyer by profession, so you know, [it's] just part of my basic legal education in law school to learn about the areas of legal and policymaking responsibility from between the federal and provincial government," Edmonton resident Anna Kuranicheva told CBC.

"And so then we learn to understand where the municipal governments take their jurisdiction and their abilities to implement laws [and] policies."

Jurisdictional jostling has reigned supreme this past term for the current Edmonton city council when it comes to matters like determining how to provide support for people experiencing homelessness and addictions. 

Who does what?

Federal, provincial and municipal governments each have their own responsibilities when it comes to serving citizens, and sometimes there is overlapping involvement depending on collaboration needed between all three levels of government.

All levels sometimes even collaborate when working with First Nations, who have their own system of governance.

Below you'll find a look at some of the areas each level of government is responsible for. You may notice, even though these are non-exhaustive lists, there are areas that require governments to work with each other.

Some of the areas that the federal government deals with include:

• Postal service
• Airports and railways
• International affairs and travel
• Immigration and citizenship
• Banking and currency
• Broadcasting and telecommunications
• Federal taxes
• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• National housing strategy
• Indigenous lands and rights
• Fisheries, oceans and national parks
• RCMP
• Military and veterans' affairs
• Employment insurance
• Criminal law
• Fiscal equalization
• Student loans

The Alberta government handles:

• Education 
• Programs that support employers and employees
• Health care
• Housing
• Provincial transportation infrastructure like highways
• Property taxes (provincial portion/education requisition)
• Family and Community Support Services program (80 per cent funding from the provincial government and 20 per cent minimum from the municipal government)
• Provincial courts
• Policing (rural and provincewide protective services)
• Post-secondary education
• Social services (treatment and specialized services, domestic violence shelters)
• Student loans

Municipalities across Alberta generally take on the following:

• Municipal roads
• Zoning, land use and development
• Utilities (water, sewer, wastewater)
• Waste collection and recycling services
• Fire protection
• Public transit
• Public libraries
• Municipal parks, trails and playgrounds
• Recreation facilities  
• Business and building licensing
• Bylaws
• Parking
• Property taxes (municipal portion)
• Municipal police force (e.g. Edmonton Police Service)
• Family and Community Support Services (20 per cent minimum funding from the municipal government and 80 per cent funding from the provincial government)

For Edmonton voters like John Bevin, an election issue that has been top of mind is how all levels of government can offer support to those experiencing homelessness.

"I feel like in our communities, when we say mental health is an issue, it's been silenced. I feel like it should not be silenced, it should be supported," Bevin said, noting that while all three levels of government have provided support to address root causes, there needs to be continued effort to see that change firsthand in the streets and neighbourhoods of Edmonton.  

But as a resident, it can be confusing to know who to direct your frustrations toward.

Bev Esslinger, who served as an Edmonton city councillor from 2013 to 2021, has experience fielding concerns and complaints from Edmontonians who may not realize they are barking up the wrong tree.

"Quite often in an election time, people get really confused about what issues really belong to municipal government versus belong to the education system or belong to the province," Esslinger said.

"They used to say it's really about the things you do every day. You drive the roads, you ride the bus, go to the library, rec centre, you want your garbage picked up, you want your snow removed — that's all municipal government."

But sometimes projects of a larger magnitude, like converting Yellowhead Trail into a freeway, require all three levels of government to come to the table to fund the initiative and get it completed.

"Unfortunately, the city often initiates this and says we need this and then has to go with their hands out to say, 'Please sir, help me do this to serve our citizens that we all serve,'" Esslinger said when talking about how municipalities are often fighting for resources.

Tyler Gandam, who is trying to get re-elected as the mayor of Wetaskiwin, is the president of Alberta Municipalities, an organization which represents cities, towns and other communities in the province. He said there can be a misconception among the public on how much municipalities can oversee and change.

"Municipally elected people are the closest to the community members and the business owners," Gandam said.

"They're the ones they see at the grocery store, out for dinner, walking their dog in the parks — there's a sense that we have some sort of control over everything, which certainly isn't the case."

Health care has emerged as a key issue that has required municipalities to sidle up to the jurisdictional line of responsibility, Gandam said.

"I know that there are many municipalities that are either purchasing or paying the lease on doctors' offices —  they're paying to have doctors for their recruitment," he said. "They're actively going out there and recruiting doctors for their community.

"So the money on health that a municipality is spending is outside of what their official mandate is, but they're recognizing that there is a gap in what they're able to provide, health-care-wise."

Growing challenges facing municipalities

Enid Slack, director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance at the University of Toronto, told CBC there is increasingly a mismatch between growing municipal responsibilities and stagnant revenue sources.

Whether it's addressing climate change or ensuring necessary services and infrastructure are keeping pace with increased immigration, the scope of challenges facing municipalities has shifted greatly.

"What hasn't been changing very much is their revenues," she said. "You know, we go back 100 years, and municipalities levied property taxes, they levied user fees, and they got transfers from the federal and provincial governments. That's pretty much the same today."

Slack said part of the work of the institute is continuously revisiting the distribution of labour and resources between all levels of government and whether that needs to be revamped.

"It is time to look again at whose responsibility housing should be, and how we should pay for it. Whose responsibility should public transit be? ... And if it's the municipality, should they be paying for all of it? Or should they be getting funding from other orders of government?"

These can be big questions to ponder when most people have competing priorities, Edmonton voter Callum Chandler told CBC.

"I feel like people worry a lot more about getting food on their table and being able to pay their bills on time than they are concerned with federal politics or even provincial politics for the most part," he said.

"I think a lot of people know a little bit, they know who's in charge, but they don't necessarily know what people are doing."

Gandam said many municipal politicians are willing to engage with citizens to help bridge the gap in understanding.

"I think that at a municipally elected level, we are more than happy to share with you what we can work on and what other orders of the government are responsible for."