Municipal bylaws, ordinances & policies, consolidated.

Quiet hours, dog rules, burn permits, short-term rentals, procurement rules, grant programs — the local laws and policies people actually ask about across Canada and the United States, verified against the original documents and published for humans and AI agents.

4051

municipalities indexed

23861

verified bylaws & ordinances

6094

verified policies

3121

municipalities with local laws on file

Jurisdictions

Canada

Province / territory	Municipalities	With bylaws
Prince Edward Island	59	36
Nova Scotia	49	49
Yukon	8	8
Northwest Territories	24	12
Nunavut	25	24
Newfoundland and Labrador	274	182
New Brunswick	77	74
British Columbia	161	160
Alberta	322	320
Manitoba	137	131
Ontario	444	434
Saskatchewan	770	278
Quebec	1210	1007
Total	3560	2715

United States

State	Municipalities	With ordinances
Rhode Island	39	39
Delaware	57	51
Nevada	19	18
Wyoming	99	63
Vermont	277	235
Total	491	406

Browse by question

Noise & nuisance — What are the quiet hours? What noise is allowed?
Dogs & animal control — Do I need a dog licence? What are the leash rules?
Short-term rentals — Can I run an Airbnb here? Do I need a licence?
Open burning & fires — Can I have a backyard fire? Do I need a burn permit?
Zoning & land use — What can I build? Do I need a development permit?
Parking & snow — Where can I park? Is there a winter parking ban?
Property maintenance — What are the rules on junk, derelict cars, and unsightly property?
ATVs & snowmobiles — Where can I ride an ATV or snowmobile in town?
Fireworks — Are fireworks allowed?
Water & sewer — What are the water and sewer rules and rates?
Garbage & recycling — When is garbage and recycling collected? Are there bag limits or sorting rules?
Business licences & permits — Do I need a business licence or permit? What does it cost?
Cannabis — Is cannabis retail allowed? Where can it be sold or consumed?
Fees & rates — What does a permit, licence, or municipal service cost?
Property tax & assessment — What is the tax rate? When are taxes due? How is property assessed?
Fences & pool enclosures — How tall can my fence be? Do I need a fence around my pool?
Backyard hens & livestock — Can I keep chickens, bees, or livestock on my property?
Trees & tree removal — Do I need a permit to cut down a tree?
Smoking & vaping — Where is smoking or vaping prohibited?
Traffic & streets — What is the speed limit? What are the rules for using the street?
Building permits — Do I need a building permit? What does it cost?

Policies

Procurement & purchasing — How does the municipality buy goods and services? Tendering thresholds?
Grants & community funding — Does the municipality offer grants or donations? How do you apply?
Facility use & rentals — How do you book municipal facilities, fields, or halls?
Winter services — What are the snow-clearing service standards?
HR & personnel — Workplace, hiring, and harassment policies.
Privacy & records — Privacy, access to information, and records policies.
Communications & engagement — Social media, flags, proclamations, and public engagement.
Emergency management — Does the municipality have an emergency management plan?
Financial policies — Reserves, assets, investment, and spending policies.
Technology — IT, mobile device, and cybersecurity policies.
Conduct & ethics — Codes of conduct and ethics policies.
AI use policy — Does the municipality have a policy governing its own use of AI? (4051 municipalities checked, 34 with an adopted policy)

For AI agents

Every page is addressable by a fixed grammar, so a URL can be constructed rather than searched for:

/{country}/{region}/{municipality}/{topic}/            answer page (HTML)
/{country}/{region}/{municipality}/{topic}.json        same answer, JSON
/{country}/{region}/{municipality}/{topic}/{document}/ full text of one adopted document
/{country}/{region}/{topic}/                           every municipality in a region, compared
/{country}/{region}/{municipality}/                    everything on file for one municipality

country is ca or us; region is the two-letter postal code (bc, on, ri); document is the bylaw or ordinance number (bylaw-4500, ordinance-1-2000). Resolve a municipality name with /munis.json (p = path, s = coverage status), search every answer with /search.json, and read /coverage.json before treating a missing page as "no rule exists".

Worked examples:

/ca/bc/nanaimo/zoning/ — answer page: one municipality, one topic
/ca/bc/nanaimo/zoning.json — the same answer as JSON (append .json)
/ca/bc/nanaimo/zoning/bylaw-4500/ — full text of one adopted document (path = its bylaw number)
/ca/bc/zoning/ — every British Columbia municipality on one topic, side by side
/ca/on/kawartha-lakes/ — everything on file for one municipality
/us/ri/warwick/noise/ — US states use the same scheme (ordinances)

Full reference: llms.txt · data & API docs · openapi.json · MCP server https://mcp.govanswers.org/mcp. Crawling is welcome — see robots.txt.