User:Hwy43/Sandbox/List of communities in Alberta

The Province of Alberta has a variety of incorporated and unincorporated communities.

Incorporated communities (municipalities)
Types of incorporated communities or municipalities in Alberta include cities, towns, villages, summer villages, specialized municipalities, municipal districts, improvement districts, special areas and Métis settlements.

Cities
As of 2012, Alberta has 16 cities.

Towns
As of 2012, Alberta has 108 towns.

Villages
As of 2012, Alberta has 94 villages.

Summer villages
As of 2012, Alberta has 51 summer villages.

Specialized municipalities
As of 2012, Alberta has five specialized municipalities.

Municipal districts
As of 2012, Alberta has 64 municipal districts.

Improvement districts
As of 2012, Alberta has eight improvement districts.

Special areas
As of 2012, Alberta has three special areas.

Métis settlements
As of 2012, Alberta has eight Métis settlements.

Unincorporated communities
Types of unincorporated communities in Alberta include urban service areas, hamlets and a townsite as recognized by Alberta Municipal Affairs, and designated places and localities (or place names) as recognized by Statistics Canada. There are also other unincorporated communities that do not fall into any of these types.

Urban service areas
An urban service area is a type of hamlet that is not officially defined under the Municipal Government Act (MGA). However, the Province of Alberta recognizes it as equivalent to a city for the purposes of program delivery and grant eligibility according to the Orders in Council that established the Regional Municipality (R.M.) of Wood Buffalo and Strathcona County as specialized municipalities.

These Orders in Council (see Schedule 1, Section 7 and Schedule 1, Section 3 respectively) also state that:


 * the specialized municipalities shall provide to the Province of Alberta any information required to administer programs or to determine the amount of grants which would have been paid if the urban service areas were incorporated cities; and
 * for the purposes of enactments affecting roads, culverts, ditches, drains, and highways, the urban service areas are deemed to be cities.

Essentially, urban services areas meet the eligibility requirements of the MGA to incorporate as a city. As such, they are Alberta's largest hamlets.

There are currently two urban services areas in Alberta:
 * Fort McMurray; and
 * Sherwood Park.

Fort McMurray, within the jurisdiction of the R.M. of Wood Buffalo, was formerly a city prior its amalgamation with Improvement District No. 143 on April 1, 1995. It was designated an urban service area at the time of the amalgamation.

Sherwood Park has always been an unincorporated community under the jurisdiction of Strathcona County. It became an urban service area when Strathcona County changed its status from a municipal district to a specialized municipality on January 1, 1996.

Hamlets
As of 2012, Alberta has 386 hamlets including the Fort McMurray and Sherwood Park urban service areas.

Townsites
A townsite is a type of unincorporated community that is not officially defined under the Municipal Government Act (MGA), but it is generally regarded as an independent urban area within an Indian reserve that is comparable in population, land area, services, and built form, to that of Alberta's incorporated towns. Essentially, townsites would meet the eligibility requirements of the MGA to incorporate as a town if they were not located on Indian reserve lands under federal jurisdiction.

Redwood Meadows is Alberta's only townsite at this time and is located within the Tsuu T'ina Nation.

Designated places
As of the 2011 census, Alberta had 261 designated places.

Localities (or Place names)
"Locality" was the term used in the 2006 census, which was replaced with "Place name" in the 2011 census.

Indian reserves and settlements
In addition to incorporated and unincorporated communities, the Government of Canada has jurisdiction over matters relating to First Nations. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) recognizes numerous Indian reserves, settlements and villages across the country. Numerous Indian reserves and settlements are located within Alberta. Some of these are designated census subdivisions by Statistics Canada, which deems them as equivalents to municipalities.