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COMMENTARY: Every Islander needs a mayor

As Prince Edward Island undertakes its mandated 10-year review of the Municipal Government Act (MGA), the province finds itself confronting a problem that has been evident since the legislation came into force in 2017: the system was built on assumptions that were never fully realized.

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At its core, the MGA envisioned a fully “municipalized” province, where local governments would serve as the primary vehicles for delivering what the act calls “good government.” That vision assumed municipalities would have the population base, financial capacity and administrative structure necessary to meet modern governance expectations. In practical terms, it meant communities of roughly 4,000 residents or more, supported by a sustainable tax base.

In effect, every Islander would have a mayor; and the benefits of accountable, local governance.

That is not the reality today. Instead, Prince Edward Island is left with a fragmented system: a patchwork of small, under-resourced municipalities struggling to meet legislative expectations, alongside large areas of the province with no municipal representation at all. For too many Islanders, there is simply no one at the local level empowered to advocate, plan and deliver on their behalf.

P.E.I. remains the only province in Canada where a significant portion of the land, roughly 65 per cent, lies outside municipal administration. This reality undermines the very premise of the MGA. It creates a patchwork system where some Islanders benefit from structured, accountable local governance, while others do not. The result is inequity in service delivery, uneven accountability, and missed opportunities for co-ordinated regional development.

Several municipalities have already dissolved because they lacked........

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