List of towns in Alberta#New towns

Pursuant to Part 5, Division 1 of the Municipal Government Act (MGA), each municipality created under the authority of the MGA is governed by a council. As a requirement of the MGA, a town council consists of an odd number of councillors, one of which is the town's chief elected official (CEO) or mayor. A town council consists of seven councillors by default, but it can consist of a higher or lower odd number if council passes a bylaw altering its size (so long as it does not consist of fewer than three councillors). For the 2017–2021 term, 82 towns have a council of seven, and 25 have a council of five.{{cite web | url=http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/mc_municipal_officials_search.cfm | title=Municipal Officials Search | publisher=Alberta Municipal Affairs | access-date=January 14, 2019}}

Town councils are governed by a mayor and an even number of councillors that are elected by popular vote, resulting in a total odd number of members to avoid tie votes on council matters. All council members are elected under the provisions of the Local Authorities Election Act (LAEA).{{cite web | url=http://www.qp.alberta.ca/574.cfm?page=L21.cfm&leg_type=Acts&isbncln=9780779747795 | publisher=Alberta Queen's Printer | title=Local Authorities Election Act | access-date=March 21, 2010}} Mayoral or councillor candidates are required to be residents of their municipality for a minimum of six consecutive months prior to nomination day. The last municipal election was October 16, 2017.

Alberta Municipal Affairs, a ministry of the Cabinet of Alberta, is charged with coordination of all levels of local government.

Administrative duties of towns include public safety, local transit, roads, water service, drainage and waste collection, as well as coordination of infrastructure with provincial and regional authorities (including road construction, education, and health).

The below table is a list of only those urban municipalities in Alberta that are incorporated as towns.

The municipalities of Crowsnest Pass and Jasper are not listed because they are incorporated as specialized municipalities, not towns. For more information on specialized municipalities, see Specialized municipalities of Alberta.

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New town is a former urban municipal status in Alberta that is no longer in use. The authority to incorporate a community as a new town came from The New Towns Act, which was chapter 39 of the Statutes of Alberta, 1956.

At least 12 communities incorporated as a new town between 1956 and 1967. Cynthia and Drayton Valley were the first communities in Alberta to incorporate as new towns on June 1, 1956. Drayton Valley did so after only six months of incorporation as a village, and was also the community that operated under new town status for the shortest period – eight months from June 1, 1956, to February 1, 1957.

The last community to incorporate as a new town was Fox Creek on July 19, 1967. Fox Creek was previously unincorporated prior to this date. It remained a new town for just over sixteen years until September 1, 1983, when it changed to town status.

Rainbow Lake was the last community to be recognized as a new town. Its status was changed to that of a town in 1994 when numerous former acts under the authority of Alberta Municipal Affairs were transitioned into the current Municipal Government Act. Rainbow Lake was also the community that operated under new town status for the longest period – nearly 28 years from September 1, 1966, to May 2, 1994.

Other communities that applied for new town status included Slave Lake and Smith. Slave Lake applied, despite already being incorporated, to access additional provincial funding but the application was denied by the provincial cabinet. In the case of Smith, after applying in 1968, its application was denied after the province's feasibility study for the community determined Smith was unlikely to attract further economic development.{{cite book | title=Alberta's Local Governments: Politics and Democracy | url=https://archive.org/details/albertaslocalgov0000mass | url-access=registration |author=Jack Masson |author2=Edward C. LeSage Jr. | publisher=The University of Alberta Press | year=1994 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/albertaslocalgov0000mass/page/91 91–92] | isbn=0-88864-251-2}}

Below is a list of the 12 communities that were once incorporated as a new town. All but one of them are resource communities in northern or west–central Alberta and were recently founded communities at their dates of incorporation as new towns. St. Albert was the only community that was not in northern or west–central Alberta and had been incorporated as its own municipality since December 7, 1899.

All cities in Alberta{{cite web | url=http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/cfml/MunicipalProfiles/basicReport/CITY.PDF | publisher=Alberta Municipal Affairs | title=Municipal Profiles: Summary Reports (Cities) | date=January 25, 2013 | access-date=February 1, 2013}} and the former cities of Fort McMurray and Strathcona{{cite map | title=History of Annexations | publisher=City of Edmonton, Planning and Development Department}} previously held town status in their histories. Other communities that previously held town status include Beverly, Big Valley, Blairmore, Bowness,

Black Diamond, Carmangay, Coleman, Cynthia, Diamond City, Forest Lawn, Gleichen, Grande Cache, Grand Centre, Grouard, Irvine, Jasper Place, Lac La Biche, Lodgepole, Montgomery, Turner Valley and Youngstown.{{cite web | url=http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/orders/Orders_in_Council/2018/1118/2018_361.html | title=Order in Council (O.C.) 361/2018 | publisher=Government of Alberta | date=November 27, 2018 | access-date=January 13, 2019}}{{cite web | url=http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/documents/ms/population1958.pdf | title=Population Data – 1958 | publisher=Alberta Municipal Affairs | year=1958 | access-date=January 31, 2013}}{{cite web | url=http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/documents/ms/population1935.pdf | title=Population Data 1935 | publisher=Alberta Municipal Affairs | year=1935 | access-date=January 31, 2013}} Of these, the villages of Big Valley, Carmangay and Youngstown are the only communities that remain incorporated municipalities.{{AltaMC}} The others either amalgamated to form other municipalities (Blairmore, Coleman, Grand Centre and Lac La Biche),{{cite web | url=http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/cfml/MunicipalProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=BasicReport&MunicipalityType=SMUN&stakeholder=361&profileType=HIST | publisher=Alberta Municipal Affairs | title=Municipality of Crowsnest Pass - Location and History Profile | date=January 25, 2013 | access-date=February 1, 2013}}{{cite web | url=http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/cfml/MunicipalProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=BasicReport&MunicipalityType=CITY&stakeholder=525&profileType=HIST | publisher=Alberta Municipal Affairs | title=City of Cold Lake - Location and History Profile | date=January 25, 2013 | access-date=February 1, 2013}}{{cite web | url=http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/cfml/MunicipalProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=BasicReport&MunicipalityType=RMUN&stakeholder=4353&profileType=HIST | publisher=Alberta Municipal Affairs | title=Lac La Biche County - Location and History Profile | date=January 25, 2013 | access-date=February 1, 2013}} were absorbed through annexation by Calgary (Bowness, Forest Lawn and Montgomery){{cite web | url=http://www.aupress.ca/books/120152/ebook/03_Foran_2009-Establishing_the_Pattern_1955_1962.pdf | title=Chapter 3: Establishing the Pattern, 1955–1962 | access-date=February 1, 2013}} or Edmonton (Beverly and Jasper Place){{cite web | url=http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/facts_figures/population-history.aspx | title=Population History | publisher=City of Edmonton | access-date=February 1, 2013}} or dissolved to become hamlets under the jurisdiction of municipal districts (Cynthia, Diamond City, Gleichen, Grande Cache, Grouard, Irvine and Lodgepole).

The villages of Stirling, Duchess, and Alberta Beach, with population counts of 1,269, 1,085, and 1,018 respectively,{{cite book | url=http://municipalaffairs.gov.ab.ca/documents/2018_MAPL_web.pdf | title=2018 Municipal Affairs Population List | publisher=Alberta Municipal Affairs | isbn=978-1-4601-4254-7 | date=December 2018 | access-date=July 18, 2019}} meet the legislated population requirements for town status. There are also at least ten hamlets – Cardiff, Clairmont, Dunmore, Fort Chipewyan, Grande Cache, La Crete, Lac La Biche, Langdon, Springbrook, and Wabasca – that meet the population requirements for town status.

There are currently nine towns – Blackfalds, Canmore, Cochrane, High River, Okotoks, Stony Plain, Strathmore, Sylvan Lake and Whitecourt – that are eligible for city status having populations in excess of 10,000. In addition, the Town of Hinton has expressed interest in incorporating as a city once it surpasses 10,000 people.{{cite web | url=http://www.hinton.ca/Archive/ViewFile/Item/1149 | publisher=Town of Hinton | title=Town of Hinton Regular Meeting of Council Agenda (see page 113 of 157) | date=April 21, 2009 | access-date=December 9, 2009}} Its population in 2016 was 9,882.{{cite web | url=http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/hlt-fst/pd-pl/Table.cfm?Lang=Eng&T=302&SR=1&S=86&O=A&RPP=9999&PR=48 | title=Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2016 and 2011 censuses – 100% data (Alberta) | publisher=Statistics Canada | date=February 8, 2018 | access-date=January 12, 2019}} In 2016, the Town of Morinville conducted a municipal census in which it anticipated the town would surpass 10,000; thus the town investigated city status as well as a specialized municipality model with Sturgeon County.{{cite news | url=http://morinvillenews.com/2016/02/12/morinville-council-briefs-39/ | title=Morinville Council Briefs | newspaper=Morinville News | publisher=Pawn Marketing & Publishing Inc. | author=Tristan Turner | date=February 12, 2016 | access-date=February 19, 2016}} The census reported a population of 9,893, which was 107 people shy of the milestone.

{{Gallery

| title=Towns in Alberta

|width=160 | height=120

|align=center

|Image:Town of Athabasca, Alberta photograph.jpg | Athabasca

|Image:Banff town.JPG | Banff

|Image:Alberta mainstreet Bowen 038.jpg | Bowden

|Image:Albert Mainstreet Canmore looking east HPIM4263.JPG | Canmore

|Image:Alberta mainstreet Carstairs 015.jpg | Carstairs

|Image:Cochrane-Szmurlo.jpg | Cochrane

|Image:Alberta mainstreet Crossfield 002.jpg | Crossfield

|Image:Alberta mainstreet Didsbury 018.jpg | Didsbury

|Image:Fort Macleod.JPG | Fort Macleod

|Image:Innisfail mainstreet.JPG | Innisfail

|Image:Okotoks2009.JPG | Okotoks

|Image:Alberta mainstreet Olds 033.jpg | Olds

|Image:Peaceriver.jpg | Peace River

|Image:Mainstreet Alberta Slave Lake 3985.jpg | Slave Lake

|Image:Alberta mainstreet Stettler 3433.jpg | Stettler

|Image:Taber-center.JPG | Taber

|Image:Mainstreet Vauxhall.jpg | Vauxhall

|Image:Vulcan visitor centre.JPG | Vulcan

|Image:Whitecourt, AB - Mill over town.JPG | Whitecourt

}}

{{Reflist|group=N|30em}}

• List of census divisions of Alberta
• List of cities in Alberta
• List of communities in Alberta
• List of hamlets in Alberta
• List of municipal districts in Alberta
• List of municipalities in Alberta
• List of population centres in Alberta
• List of summer villages in Alberta
• List of villages in Alberta

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/ Alberta Municipal Affairs]
• [http://www.auma.ca/ Alberta Urban Municipalities Association]

{{Canada topic|List of towns in}}

{{Subdivisions of Alberta|towns=yes}}

{{Topics on Alberta}}

Towns