Municipal Boundary Battles explores the motivations, land use effects, and financial implications of municipal boundary adjustments across Canada, focusing mainly on annexations and amalgamations—the most frequent means to adjust boundaries and reform local governments in this country. With a focus on mid-size cities and small towns rather than major Canadian metropolitan areas, the authors uncover hidden motivations, untangle behind-the-scenes political machinations, and document the resulting conflict. Through empirical evidence, case studies, and examples, the collection helps develop generalizations and inform best practices for municipal boundary adjustments and reform. The contributors explain how the esoteric aspects of adjustments work in more practical applications, offering political scientists, geographers, municipal officials, and planning practitioners fresh perspectives that contradict much of the prevailing understanding of boundary adjustments.

Contributors: Sandeep Agrawal, Cody Gretzinger, John Heseltine, John Meligrana, Jordan Rea, Amrita Singh, Jon Taylor, Zack Taylor. Afterword by Andrew Sancton.

Sandeep Agrawal is an internationally-recognized Canadian scholar of urban planning whose research focuses on local governance, human and Indigenous rights, migration, and energy transition. He is a Professor at the University of Alberta.

Sandeep Agrawal's profile page

"While there are several books and articles about municipal restructuring in Canada, this is the only book that I am aware of in which the contributors are planners, and many of the chapters provide a valuable planning perspective." David Siegel, Emeritus Professor, Brock University

“Redrawing municipal boundaries is a scarcely studied topic that is of substantial significance, and most studies only deal with large scale reforms. Municipal Boundary Battles provides valuable insights for debates and assessments when redrawing the municipal map via annexation and amalgamation.” Eran Razin, Director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem