Talk:List of the largest cities and towns in Canada by area

Regional municipalities
There are more than just 4 census subdivisions in Canada called Regional Municipalities, several of which are in Ontario (York, Peel, Durham and Halton are a few of them). I'm not sure how to amend the article to account for this. Any ideas? PKT 15:36, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Do not. The regional municipalities listed are census subdivisions, while the ones you listed are census divisions. This article relates to the former. -- Earl Andrew - talk 01:37, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Needs updating
Calgary is now at about 726 sq. km., so its listing should be updated and others probably need the same. 23skidoo (talk) 16:13, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Calgary is 726.50 sq km - please update —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gb.spareham (talk • contribs) 02:49, 9 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Updated info for Calgary. Mind  matrix  04:55, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

The Municipalite de la Baie James in northern Quebec is much bigger than any of these - though it's not a "city"... are we going by incorporated municipalities or cities? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.154.142.221 (talk) 10:06, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Wood Buffalo
I'm afraid the Regional Municipality (R.M.) of Wood Buffalo is a regional municipality in official name only. There is no official municipal status of regional municipality in Alberta. The R.M. of Wood Buffalo is in fact incorporated as a specialized municipality. It simply branded itself as a regional municipality when it changed its official name in 1996.

This branding of Wood Buffalo is one of the contributing factors that have led to the common misconception that a regional municipality is an official municipal status in Alberta. The misconception is so widespread that Statistics Canada even mistakenly reported that there was such a municipal status in Alberta for the 2006 and 2001 censuses, despite reporting it correctly in the 1996 census (before the official name change).

It appears Statistics Canada misinterpreted Wood Buffalo's 1996 official name change as a status change from specialized municipality to regional municipality when it was an official name change only. Statistics Canada's misinterpretation is another contributing factor that has led to the widespread misconception.

The good news is Statistics Canada corrected the official municipal status after the 2006 census. The latest Statistics Canada Interim List of Changes to Municipal Boundaries, Status, and Names also confirms that there are no regional municipalities (RGMs) in Alberta as of January 1, 2010 (see the top of Table A, continued, on page 8).

The consequence of the above is this article is inadvertently incorrect to consider the R.M. of Wood Buffalo as a regional municipality and, as a result, list it as the largest of all 100 largest cities and towns in Canada by area.

So, how do the watchers of this page propose to address the above - remove Wood Buffalo from the list, or let the error stand on this article until early 2012 when the 2011 census results are released (showing it as a specialized municipality) and remove it from the list then?

Cheers, --Hwy43 (talk) 05:41, 8 June 2010 (UTC)


 * As there has been no response in over a year, I have removed Wood Buffalo based on the above while updating the list using numbers from the 2006 census. I also removed the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass since its municipal status changed from town to specialized municipality in 2008. I will update this list again sometime after the 2011 census results are released in early 2012. Hwy43 (talk) 16:35, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Update from 2011 census
With the 2011 census results out last month, this article needs to be updated to present the 2011 areas for all 100 largest municipalities. This is now on my to-do list, but if someone feels obliged, please go for it in the meantime. Hwy43 (talk) 02:28, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Largest cities and towns, or census subdivisions, or municipalities? (was "Temagami")
According to the Temagami article, the municipality is 1,906.42 km2 but is not listed here. This whole list is very likely inaccurate.  Volcano guy  08:02, 2 March 2013 (UTC)


 * This is a consequence of the undiscussed move on February 8, 2012. The article was previously named List of the 100 largest cities and towns in Canada by area, which is why Temagami does not appear. The new article name suggests its scope should be greater than the extent of its current content. As the article was not revised as a result, I will request it be moved back to its previous title. Hwy43 (talk) 08:21, 2 March 2013 (UTC)


 * In that case shouldn't there be a list of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by area?  Volcano guy  22:22, 2 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Since this is already named as such, should we simply expand the content to make it exactly that? Hwy43 (talk) 23:39, 2 March 2013 (UTC)


 * The likely consequence of such would likely be that no cities or towns would be in the top 100. The list would be dominated by vast municipalities that are rural with low population densities (and I doubt Temagami would make it under this scenario either). Hwy43 (talk) 01:46, 3 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Well yes it should be updated.  Volcano guy  17:38, 8 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Okay. A quick and dirty updated table of the 100 largest census subdivisions (municipalities and municipal equivalents) by area can be found here. Note 75% of them are not actually municipalities, but municipal equivalents for census purposes. If we are true to the title of this article, we should be going with the top 100 municipalities here. Let me know if we should be going with the latter rather than the former. Hwy43 (talk) 18:57, 8 March 2013 (UTC)


 * The only question I have with the later is why put districts in the municipality list?  Volcano guy  07:08, 9 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Because municipal districts, improvement districts and local government districts are municipalities. Hwy43 (talk) 08:08, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

So, are we: Hwy43 (talk) 04:22, 4 April 2013 (UTC)
 * 1) going to be true to the name of the article by going with municipalities, or
 * 2) going with census subdivisions (munis and muni-equivalents), or
 * 3) moving it back to the original article title ("List of the 100 largest cities and towns in Canada by area")?


 * I have no idea. This isn't my area of experience so I'm probably not the one to decide.  Volcano guy  22:28, 4 April 2013 (UTC)


 * My concern was mainly town municipalities.  Volcano guy  21:31, 1 May 2013 (UTC)


 * I've been meaning to reply to your April 4 post for a while now. I'm going to post a notice at the Wikipedia talk:Canadian Wikipedians' notice board to solicit input on which of the three above ways to proceed. Hwy43 (talk) 02:42, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

I reverted the undiscussed move back in late May 2013 and I just finally updated the list to 2011 figures. The regional municipalities that are census subdivisions were removed as they did not fit the scope of this article based on the article's title. Hwy43 (talk) 05:35, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

Missed Halifax
Halifax, since amalgamation in 1996, is 5,490 km². Should be on the list. Whatever the census says, it is one municipality with one administration and no sub-area governing bodies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.167.177.28 (talk) 17:59, 17 August 2016 (UTC)


 * , as you probably already know, Halifax is neither a city nor a town. It is a regional municipality, which is the very reason why it is not included in this list. Only municipalities incorporated as cities or towns are included in this list. Hwy43 (talk) 04:16, 18 August 2016 (UTC)

Just 100?
Why is only the 100 largest included? None of the other articles except for List of the 100 largest population centres in Canada and List of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population take the largest 100 of something. If it were discussed in secondary literature it would be notable so am I missing something?Catchpoke (talk) 19:32, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Lists of the 100 largest cities in Canada by population which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 18:18, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

This list is inaccurate and confusing.
What purpose does it serve?Different provinces have divided up municipalities over time. There are some massive district municipalities out there. Is someone going to update it or does it just need to go away? Enterpriset (talk) 22:25, 9 October 2023 (UTC)