Local government in Canada can be defined as all elected local authorities which are legally empowered to make decisions on behalf of its electors, excluding the federal government, provincial and territorial governments, and First Nations, Métis and Inuit governments. This can include municipalities, school boards, health authorities, and so on.

The most prominent form of local government in Canada is municipal government, which is a local council authority which provides local services, facilities, safety and infrastructure for communities. Municipal governments are local general-purpose authorities which provide services to all residents within a defined geographic area called a municipality.

According to Section 92(8) of the Constitution Act, 1867, "In each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to … Municipal Institutions in the Province." There are about 3,700 municipal governments in Canada. Municipal governments are established under provincial/territorial authority.

The powers granted to municipal governments are delegated by each of the provinces and territories of Canada according to governing legislation. Therefore, the legislation passed by municipalities has the status of subordinate legislation under provincial and territorial jurisdiction. However, rather than being "mere 'creatures of the provinces,'" municipal governments are "democratically elected by members of the general public and are accountable to their constituents in a manner analogous to that in which Parliament and the provincial legislatures are accountable to the electorates." Therefore, while municipalities do not have independent constitutional status, they are considered a separate level of government.

The organisation of local government is complex. For instance, in some provinces there are several tiers of local government: regional governments, county governments and municipal governments. There are also special service districts in some unincorporated areas. Municipal local governments take various forms including cities, towns and villages. There are also innumerable specific purpose authorities.

In Ontario alone there are at least 2000 of these bodies, including 'police commissions, health units, conservation authorities, public utilities commissions, parks boards and school boards.’ Schools are usually provided locally by school boards, with the 'school trustees' being elected.

In some provinces, several municipalities in a particular area are also part of an upper tier of municipal government, which provides more regionally oriented services. Depending on the province, this second tier may be called a county, regional municipality, regional district or regional county municipality.

In Nova Scotia, three municipalities are designated as "regional municipalities". A regional municipality is a single municipal government covering an entire historical county including all formerly incorporated towns and cities within the county.^{[citation needed]} Within the three regional municipalities, designations such as "city" and "town" exist only as informal signifiers for historically chartered towns and cities that used to exist prior to the establishment of the regional municipality.^{[citation needed]}