Regional county municipalities of Quebec
Also known as: Municipalités régionales de comté du Québec
Location	Province of Quebec
Number	87
Populations	7,082 (L'Île-d'Orléans) – 171,443 (Roussillon)
Government	County government
Subdivisions	Municipalities

The termregional county municipality orRCM (French:municipalité régionale de comté,pronounced[mynisipaliteʁeʒjɔnaldəkɔ̃te],MRC) is used inQuebec, Canada, to refer to one of 87county-like political entities.^[1] In some older English translations they were calledcounty regional municipality.

Regional county municipalities are a supralocal type ofregional municipality, and act as the local municipality inunorganized territories within their borders. The system of regional county municipalities was introduced beginning in 1979 to replace thehistoric counties of Quebec.^[2] In most cases, the territory of an RCM corresponds to that of acensus division; however, there are a few exceptions.

Some local municipalities are outside any regional county municipality (hors MRC). This includes some municipalities withinurban agglomerations and also some aboriginal lands, such asIndian reserves that are enclaves within the territory of an RCM but not juridically part of it. Where complete territorial coverage is desired, for example for the census, the Indian reserve enclaves are added in to create "geographical RCMs", and the urban agglomerations are considered to be "territories equivalent to an RCM".

The council of a RCM is composed of the mayors of the member municipalities as well as the warden. The warden is usually elected by and from the council by secret ballot. Universal suffrage may also be used. The warden's term is two years when elected by council or four years when elected by universal suffrage.

A MRC must:

• manageland use by creating a land use scheme and revise it every five years;
• establish a plan forwaste management,fire protection, and civil protection (police);
• apply the land use scheme;
• make and administerurban planning rules in unorganized territories;
• see to the proper functioning of watercourses in its territory, especially those used for agricultural drainage;
• prepare theevaluation rolls for local municipalities;
• sell buildings for property tax default;
• name or create, and fund, a local development centre to support regional businesses.

RCMs, in their definition as political units, do not cover the entire territory of Quebec. The local municipalities of Quebec (and equivalent Aboriginal territories) not belonging to an RCM fall into the following categories:

• allIndian reserves;
• 14 cities andurban agglomerations which do not belong to any RCM because they themselves exercise some or all of the powers which are normally those of an RCM (a city or agglomeration in some cases exercises onlysome of these powers because some RCM powers are in turn delegated to ametropolitan community), namely the:
  • urban agglomeration ofÎles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec
  • urban agglomeration of Quebec
  • city ofLévis
  • city ofShawinigan
  • city ofTrois-Rivières
  • city ofSherbrooke
  • urban agglomeration of Longueuil
  • city ofLaval
  • urban agglomeration of Montreal
  • city ofMirabel
  • city ofGatineau
  • city ofRouyn-Noranda
  • urban agglomeration of La Tuque
  • city ofSaguenay;
• all the municipalities of theNord-du-Québecadministrative region; and
• theparish municipality ofNotre-Dame-des-Anges.

For provincial statistical purposes, the Institut de la Statistique du Québec uses the following system so that the entire territory of Quebec is divided into 104 units known asmunicipalités régionales de comté géographiques (MRCG) "geographical regional county municipalities".

Indian reserves which would, but for their status as Indian reserves, belong to a certain RCM in the political sense are included in the geographical RCM corresponding to that RCM. There are 86 MRCGs of this kind, one for each RCM. The rest of the province is grouped into 16 "territories equivalent to an RCM" (French:territoires équivalents à une MRC orterritoires équivalents, abbreviatedTÉ), which are also considered to be MRCGs. This is done as follows.

• The 14 cities and urban agglomerations not belonging to an RCM (see above) each form their own TE, except that:

• the TE ofQuébec consists of theurban agglomeration of Quebec City, the parish municipality of Notre-Dame-des-Anges and the Indian reserve ofWendake; and
• the TE ofLa Tuque consists of theurban agglomeration of La Tuque and three Indian reserves.

• TheNord-du-Québecadministrative region is divided into three TEs as follows:

• The TE ofKativik is contained in the Nord-du-Québec region and consists of those municipalities under the jurisdiction of theKativik Regional Government. The Kativik region comprises allnorthern villages andInuit reserved lands, the onlyNaskapi village in the province, and twounorganized territories.
• The TE ofEeyou Istchee consists of those municipalities under the jurisdiction of theCree Regional Authority—allCree villages andCree reserved lands. Local administration of the new TE is shared by Cree and non-Natives, essentially along pre-2012 lines.
• The TE ofJamésie consists of the portion of the Nord-du-Québec region which was not in the Kativik TE or the Eeyou Istchee TE. It consists of four local non-Aboriginal municipalities, and the special local municipality ofEeyou Istchee James Bay Territory, which is the territory outside the four non-Aboriginal municipalities which is jointly governed and managed by the Cree of Eeyou Istchee TE and the non-Cree of Jamésie TE.

Census divisions (CDs) are used for statistical purposes by Statistics Canada. Quebec is divided into 98 CDs, each of which is assigned a unique two-digit geographical code. For the most part, Census Divisions consist of a single RCM or TE (territory equivalent to an RCM), exactly as defined above. The only exceptions are five census divisions divided into 11 RCMs or TEs, two or three each. For a list, seeList of regional county municipalities and equivalent territories in Quebec used as census divisions.

All local municipalities, equivalent Aboriginal territories, Indian settlements and unorganized territories in Quebec are assigned a unique five-digit geographical code. The first two digits are the code of the census division in which the municipality is located. For a list of all municipalities in Quebec together with theirlegal status, geographical code and date of incorporation, seeList of the official municipalities of Québec,Institut de la Statistique du Québec (ISQ). The ISQ includes the sixIndian settlements in the list, whereas theRépertoire des municipalités of theMinistère des Affaires municipales et régionales does not list them as separate from the legal municipalities or unorganized territories in which they are located. Both sources include all other types of Aboriginal communities.

• Administrative divisions of Quebec
• Census geographic units of Canada
• Classification of municipalities in Quebec
• List of regional county municipalities and equivalent territories in Quebec
• Local municipality (Quebec)

• Local government in Quebec
• Regional county municipalities in Quebec

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• Short description matches Wikidata
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