Talk:List of municipal districts in Alberta

Forthcoming article revamp

For the information of those watching this page, a revamp of this article is forthcoming per this discussion. If you have any questions/concerns/comments in the meantime, let the discussions begin. Cheers, --Hwy43 (talk) 05:36, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

To explain the first edit just executed now:

• specialized municipalities are not a subset of municipal districts;
• a regional municipality is not an official municipality type in Alberta, it is just how one specialized municipality chose to brand itself within its official name;
• for info on specialized municipalities, see Specialized municipalities of Alberta;
• improvement districts and special areas are not subsets of municipal districts;
• municipal districts, improvement districts and special areas are subsets of rural municipalities in Alberta however;
• for more info on rural municipalities, see List of communities in Alberta#Rural municipalities
• for more info on improvement districts, see List of communities in Alberta#Improvement districts
• for more info on special areas, see List of communities in Alberta#Special areas or Special Areas Board, Alberta;
• census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations are not official municipality types in Alberta (they are adminstrative areas consisting of one or more municipalities for federal census analytical purposes); and
• as of the mid-1990s, counties became municipal districts, making county simply another term for municipal district, and those that were counties were allowed to keep the term county in their official names (refer to the new Branding section) – it appears this may have been understood previously, but there were two conflicting statements that were potentially causing confusion.

More edits are forthcoming, including improvement to the intro, improvement to the list of MDs, and a new Administration section to be consistent with Cities of Alberta, List of towns in Alberta and Villages of Alberta. Cheers, --Hwy43 (talk) 08:28, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

An explanation of why the five specialized municipalities and three special areas aren't included here should be provided. 117Avenue (talk) 04:54, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Is this for your benefit or the benefit of others since we've previously discussed some of this before? Per here (scroll to bottom) and here, the below is Alberta's hierarchy of municipal types and statuses:

• 1. Urban municipalities (type)

• a. Cities (status)
• b. Towns (status)
• c. Villages (status)
• d. Summer villages (status)

• 2. Specialized municipalities (both a type and status)
• 3. Rural municipalities (type)

• a. Municipal districts (status)
• b. Improvement districts (status)
• c. Special areas (status)

• 4. Metis settlements (both a type and status)
• 5. Indian reserves (both a type and status)

1a-d, 2, 3a-c, 4 and 5 are municipal statuses, while 1 (urban municipalities) is an aggregation of 1a-d and 2 (rural municipalities) is an aggregation of 3a-c. Since there are no statuses under types 2, 4 & 5, they are both a municipal type and status.

Therefore, a specialized municipality is not a municipal district as it is a distinct municipal type, while a municipal district is a distinct municipal status under the distinct rural municipality municipal type.

Further, a special area is distinct municipal status just like municipal district and as such they are rural equivalents of each other under the distinct rural municipality municipal type. --Hwy43 (talk) 05:38, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

No I thoroughly understand it, I meant on the article. Most people are going to come here expecting a thorough list of counties, and when they see no reference to Strathcona County they are going to wonder why. 117Avenue (talk) 05:47, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Ah, got it. Very necessary as we may find others continually trying to re-add Strathcona County and others in over time. I'll brainstorm that for a bit and then weave it in. --Hwy43 (talk) 15:18, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

An explanation of why three of the five specialized municipalities, the three special areas and the seven improvement districts are not included in the List of municipal districts is now provided. I am silent on the other two of the five specialized municipalities (Crowsnest Pass and Jasper) as they are often mistakenly referred to as towns as opposed to being mistakenly referred to as municipal districts. Therefore, a similar explanation of why these two aren't included in the List of towns has been added to the List of towns in Alberta article. --Hwy43 (talk) 07:17, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

Looks good. 117Avenue (talk) 00:07, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

Municipal seats

A discussion on the application of the municipal seat concept to Alberta community articles has been initiated at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Alberta#Municipal seats. Any input there is appreciated. Hwy43 (talk) 04:40, 31 October 2013 (UTC)