Cities and Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador: What the Three City Acts Establish and Where Provincial Municipal Law Is Heading: A White Paper

Posted on September 27, 2026 by nathanalbright

1. Summary

Newfoundland and Labrador has three kinds of general-purpose local government: cities, towns, and local service districts. The distinction between a city and a town is not based on population. It rests on where each municipality’s authority comes from. Each of the three cities (St. John’s, Corner Brook, and Mount Pearl) is governed by its own statute, passed specifically for it. Every town is governed by one general statute, the Towns and Local Service Districts Act of 2023. A close reading of the three city acts shows that the practical differences between cities and towns now involve council structure, historical property holdings, specialized services, and taxation more than any sweeping grant of extra autonomy. In several respects the 2023 towns law is more modern and permissive than the city acts, which date mostly from the 1970s and 1980s. The province has said the city acts will be rewritten next, using the towns law as the model. That work has not yet been completed.

2. The Legal Framework

Cities. The province’s own review materials describe the arrangement directly: each city has its own legislation which governs how it functions and operates (City of St. John’s Act, City of Mount Pearl Act and City of Corner Brook Act).

Towns. The 2023 towns law defines “city” as a closed list: the City of St. John’s, the City of Corner Brook, and the City of Mount Pearl. Everything else incorporated as a general municipality is a town. The provincial cabinet may, on the minister’s recommendation, incorporate an area as a town, amalgamate towns, annex areas, establish and alter boundaries, and disincorporate a town. That list includes no power to create a city.

Historical meaning of the distinction. Traditionally, a “city” in this province meant a municipality with greater autonomy from the provincial government than a “town” of similar size. St. John’s was incorporated as Newfoundland’s first city, and as a city it had more autonomy on the raising and spending of money.

Chronology of the city acts. The province’s legislative history records that Corner Brook’s first city act came into force in 1955 and was replaced in 1985, and that the City of Mount Pearl Act came into force in 1988. The St. John’s act is older still. Its current consolidation cites provisions carried over from the 1970 revised statutes.

3. What the Three City Acts Establish

3.1 Corporate identity and boundaries

All three acts continue the city as a corporation under its own name. St. John’s residents are continued as a corporation by the name of the City of St. John’s, and its boundaries may be enlarged or reduced by cabinet order. Mount Pearl and Corner Brook follow a more procedural model. In Mount Pearl, cabinet may alter boundaries, amalgamate towns with the city, or annex areas only subject to a feasibility report. Corner Brook’s act requires the minister to order a feasibility report before any boundary recommendation, and the person preparing it must hold public hearings. The towns law uses a similar feasibility-report process but makes it discretionary: the minister may order such a report before recommending a change.

3.2 Council size and structure

This is one of the clearest differences.

  • St. John’s has a council fixed by statute. It consists of a mayor, deputy mayor, and nine councillors, and the council may reduce the councillors to seven by a two-thirds by-law, subject to cabinet approval. Both the mayor and deputy mayor are elected offices.
  • Mount Pearl and Corner Brook use a shared model. Each council consists of a mayor and not fewer than six councillors as prescribed by the minister, and the mayor must be elected at large in a separate election. In Corner Brook, the deputy mayor is chosen by council from among the councillors.
  • Towns must have an odd number of councillors, not fewer than five and not more than nine, though a town may exceed the maximum with ministerial approval. A town has a separately elected mayor only if the minister directs it or the council chooses it by a two-thirds vote. Otherwise council elects the mayor from among its members.

A guaranteed, separately elected mayor is therefore a defining feature of all three cities. In towns it is optional.

Wards. All three city councils may create wards. St. John’s council may do so by a two-thirds by-law and may also fix at-large seats. Towns may also create wards, but the towns law adds constraints. Wards cannot be changed within 12 months after or 6 months before a general election, and at-large councillors must outnumber ward councillors.

3.3 Law-making authority

The city acts and the towns law grant power in different ways.

The St. John’s act gives council power to make by-laws to carry out the powers and functions the act assigns, provided they are not contrary to provincial law. By-laws take effect on publication in the Gazette. Corner Brook’s council adopts “regulations” by resolution and must send certified copies to the minister within 14 days.

The 2023 towns law moved to a broader model. A town now has the capacity, rights, powers and privileges of a natural person for town purposes. Its powers are to be interpreted broadly, on the stated basis that a town is a responsible and accountable level of government. The law also lists wide-ranging discretionary by-law subjects, from public safety and business regulation to parks, heritage, and environmental protection.

The result is somewhat ironic. On paper, the general grant of authority to towns is now more modern and flexible than the enumerated-powers structure in the older city acts. This is one reason the province has committed to rewriting the city acts.

3.4 Finance and provincial oversight

On routine financial oversight, cities and towns look very similar.

  • Budgets. Corner Brook must adopt its budget by December 1 in a form the minister prescribes and send a copy to the minister. Towns must do the same, and proposed expenditures may not exceed anticipated revenues.
  • Short-term borrowing. Mount Pearl’s current-account borrowing may not exceed 20% of its estimated tax yield, grants-in-lieu, and assured revenue. Corner Brook has the same cap and may exceed it only with the minister’s prior written approval. Towns have exactly the same 20% rule.
  • Long-term borrowing. Corner Brook’s capital borrowing is subject to the approval of the minister, as is capital borrowing for towns.
  • Deficit intervention. Where Corner Brook has incurred major deficits, the minister may require it to submit its budget for approval. Towns are subject to the same provision.

For Corner Brook and Mount Pearl, and for towns, city status has not meant freedom from provincial financial supervision. The main financial difference lies in taxation and in St. John’s unusual arrangements.

3.5 Taxation

  • St. John’s has its own taxation statute. Its act refers to the City of St. John’s Municipal Taxation Act, for example in authorizing business improvement area levies. The act’s table of contents still lists historic headings such as a court of revision, a ground landlords’ tax, a fuel oil tax, and an entertainment tax. It is not clear from the table of contents alone how many of these are still in active use.
  • Corner Brook must impose a real property tax and may set different rates for residential and commercial property. It must also impose an annual business tax on everyone carrying on business in the city. Its act still contains a poll tax provision allowing an annual tax of not less than $50 on residents 18 and older.
  • Towns must impose a real property tax and may create classes and subclasses of property for that purpose. The 2023 law also gives towns a direct sellers tax and a tourist accommodation tax. It removed the poll tax, which the minister said still existed in more than 40 communities, and noted that Newfoundland and Labrador was the last province with such taxes.

Here too the towns law has moved ahead of at least one city act. Corner Brook’s statute still carries a poll tax provision that the province abolished for towns.

3.6 Property, services, and institutions unique to a city

The city acts differ most sharply from the towns law in their long lists of particular assets, services, and institutions. This is especially true of St. John’s.

  • Vested lands and waters. All streets and roads within St. John’s are vested in the city. The waters of Quidi Vidi Lake and the land beneath them are vested absolutely in the city, and the act names specific parks, such as Bannerman Park.
  • Regional water supply. St. John’s has a statutory duty to convey a sufficient supply of wholesome water from Windsor Lake and other lakes. It has possession and control of named water bodies, including Petty Harbour Long Pond, and may impound water to supply areas outside the city.
  • A regional fire service. The St. John’s act contains a full part on the St. John’s Regional Fire Department, including provisions on the firefighters’ association, a no-strike clause, and binding arbitration.
  • Offices of the mayor. The St. John’s mayor is by virtue of office a justice of the peace within the city limits.
  • Commissions and development powers. St. John’s may appoint a traffic commission to exercise powers delegated under the Highway Traffic Act. It may also designate urban development or renewal areas and expropriate, demolish, or lease land within them.

Corner Brook’s act includes its own powers over a public transportation system and transportation commission, libraries, cemeteries, heritage areas, and receivership. Many of these now have counterparts in the towns law, which gives towns heritage, business improvement area, and economic development powers.

4. The Essential Differences in Summary

Based on the three statutes, the differences between a city and a town in Newfoundland and Labrador come down to the following:

  1. Source of authority. A city exists under a charter written for it alone. A town exists under a general law applied to every town. Changing a city’s powers requires amending its own act in the House of Assembly. A town’s powers change whenever the general law changes.
  2. Council structure. Cities are guaranteed a separately elected mayor. St. John’s has a fixed council of eleven. Towns have five to nine councillors and may or may not directly elect their mayors.
  3. Specific assets and services. The city acts hand particular lands, waters, parks, utilities, and institutions to the city by name. St. John’s is the extreme case, with a statutory role in regional water and fire services.
  4. Taxation. St. John’s has a separate taxation statute. Corner Brook’s act retains older taxation forms. Towns now operate under a newer and more uniform tax framework.
  5. Oversight. Provincial financial oversight of Corner Brook and Mount Pearl is largely the same as for towns, including borrowing limits, ministerial approval of long-term debt, and budget intervention in deficit situations.

In practical terms, city status in this province functions as a statutory identity and a set of inherited arrangements more than a broad class of added powers. Since 2023, towns have in several respects received the more modern grant of authority.

5. What the Province Is Seeking to Do

5.1 The 2023 reform of town law

The provincial government described the Towns and Local Service Districts Act as modern and enabling, replacing the Municipalities Act, 1999. Its stated aims included:

  • broad by-law powers and more flexibility for towns in enforcing them;
  • fewer situations requiring ministerial approval;
  • more public oversight of open and closed meetings;
  • eliminating or minimizing regressive taxes;
  • more flexibility in raising tax revenue, along with tools for tax affordability; and
  • more tools for economic development.

The minister said the law moves towns into a permissive frame in which their by-laws can be wide-ranging. He also noted that towns could now operate recreational facilities, something larger communities had long wanted but were not allowed to do.

5.2 The next step: rewriting the three city acts

The government stated from the outset that the towns law would inform the drafting of new legislation for Mount Pearl, Corner Brook and St. John’s. The cities themselves were not affected by the 2023 changes, since they have their own pieces of legislation with the province.

That second phase has not been completed. Ahead of the 2025 provincial election, Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador stated that the three Cities Acts governing St. John’s, Mount Pearl, and Corner Brook still require an update. Public reporting located for this paper does not show a replacement cities bill tabled since then. The evident direction is to bring the cities under a framework resembling the 2023 towns law: natural-person powers, broad interpretation of municipal authority, updated taxation, and modern meeting and accountability rules. The unresolved question is whether that happens through three rewritten acts or through a single general cities statute.

5.3 Regional governance

Alongside the legislative rewrite, the province has returned repeatedly to the question of regional government. In 2022, a joint working group recommended about 25 regional governments, with final implementation in late 2024. Each region would have an elected council of 15 members, and municipalities would keep their own councils. That timeline was not met. By 2025 the municipal association was urging the province to return to the table and continue developing a formalized approach to municipal cooperation within a regional framework. The department’s current planning work includes consultation on a St. John’s Urban Region Regional Plan, which covers the capital area where all three cities except Corner Brook, and several of the largest towns, are located.

5.4 The present government

A Progressive Conservative government under Premier Tony Wakeham took office after the October 2025 election. Barry Petten now serves as Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, having taken the portfolio in 2026. Government statements during 2026 have been general. For example, during Municipal Awareness Week the government said it is committed to working with municipal leaders, listening, and solving problems together. Specific commitments on the timing or form of new cities legislation have not been publicly identified. The department’s website links to the minister’s mandate letter, which would be the most direct source for the government’s current priorities.

6. Implications and Open Questions

  • For the existing cities. St. John’s, Mount Pearl, and Corner Brook currently operate under older charters, while their neighbouring towns operate under newer and more flexible law. Updating the city acts would remove that mismatch.
  • For large towns. No statute sets criteria for a town to become a city. Any future cities framework could either keep the closed list of three or create a general pathway, such as a population threshold or a petition-and-feasibility process, by which a large town like Paradise or Conception Bay South could apply. Whether the province includes such a pathway is one of the more consequential choices ahead.
  • For regional governance. If regional governments are revived, the city/town distinction may matter less than how municipalities relate to the regional tier. This is especially relevant in the St. John’s area, where regional water and fire services already cross municipal lines.

7. Conclusion

The three city acts show that a city in Newfoundland and Labrador is defined above all by having its own charter. With that come a guaranteed, directly elected mayor, a set of named properties and institutions, and in St. John’s case a distinct taxation regime and a statutory role in regional services. In day-to-day financial oversight, Corner Brook and Mount Pearl are treated much like towns. The 2023 reform gave towns a modern, permissive grant of authority that in several respects surpasses the older city charters. The province’s stated next step is to modernize the city acts along the same lines. The municipal sector continues to press for that work, and for a renewed approach to regional cooperation, but no replacement legislation has yet been introduced.

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About nathanalbright

I'm a person with diverse interests who loves to read. If you want to know something about me, just ask.
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