Local services board

A local services board (LSB), in the Canadian province of Ontario, is an organization which is contracted by the Government of Ontario to provide municipal-level services in a community which is not part of an incorporated municipality.

Most local services boards are elected by residents of the communities which they serve. Depending on the community, the services provided may include water, sewage, street lighting, garbage collection, recreational, fire department, library and/or emergency telecommunications services. Maintenance of local roads in a local services board's jurisdictional area is generally contracted to a separate local roads board.

Local services boards exist in the Northern Ontario region and in the Parry Sound District, the parts of the province where there is no county-level system of government. They are primarily overseen by the provincial Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, which provides them with annual operating grant funding, although the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing also has a role in their governance.

Most, but not all, communities which have a local services board are accorded the status of designated place in Statistics Canada censuses. However, Statistics Canada does not aggregate separate census data for local service boards which are not also designated places, including them only in the aggregated data for unorganized areas.

There are currently 46 local services boards operating in the province; the newest, Greater Oxdrift, was incorporated in 2009. Some former local services boards have also been dissolved — this may occur because the community is subsequently incorporated as a true municipality, because the service area is annexed into a larger municipality or because the agency is no longer able, for financial or political reasons, to offer the level of service expected of an LSB.

Local service boards

Local services boards by district in Ontario

District	Board
Algoma	Batchawana Bay Aweres Goulais and District Hawk Junction Missanabie Peace Tree Searchmont Wharncliffe and Kynoch
Cochrane	Hallebourg Jogues Lac-Sainte-Thérèse Moose Factory
Kenora	Greater Oxdrift KeeMan Melgund Minaki Pellatt, Pelican, Umbach, Gidley Redditt Round Lake Wabigoon
Manitoulin	Dawson Robinson
Nipissing	Redbridge Thorne Tilden Lake
Parry Sound	Britt-Byng Inlet Laurier Loring, Port Loring and District Restoule
Sudbury	Cartier Foleyet Gogama Rainbow Country
Thunder Bay	Armstrong East Gorham Hurkett Kaministiquia Lappe and Area Nolalu Rossport Shebandowan Upsala
Timiskaming	Kenogami King-Lebel Maisonville Savard

External links

• Ontario Northern Services Boards Act, 1990 at E-Laws
• Local Services Board, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines