Who Decides

Try Who Decides in 10 seconds

Tap a job to find its desk. Canada has more than one government. Each keeps its own list. Just to touch — nothing is recorded.

Learn — lessons that teach first, best in this order

1. 1Lesson 1Start hereThree governments, one garbage dayWho plows the road, who prints the passport, who runs the hospital? Sort the jobs, sit at a council meeting, and find the jobs two governments shareTeaches: Levels of government and who does whatYou will use: questions · a sort · a role to play · an inquiry · a choiceOntario B3.2, B3.4Test yourself on lesson 1 →
2. 2Lesson 2ReadyRights, responsibilities, and nationsWhat every citizen can claim and what you owe. Then a day at a band council, and the First Nations, Métis and Inuit governments of todayTeaches: Rights, responsibilities, and Indigenous governmentsYou will use: questions · a sort · an inquiry · four voices · casesOntario B3.1, B3.3Test yourself on lesson 2 →

Play with it — any time, nothing recorded

• LabJust playTown BudgetHouseholds times tax is the pot. Slide each service’s share and see what breaks when it does not add up
• GameJust playWho Do You Call?Eight problems from an ordinary week. Pick the government, and the person to write to

Why it matters today

• The pothole on your street

  Someone owns every problem. Knowing whose desk it is turns a complaint into a fix.

• Your library card

  The library, the park and the bus are the town's. The school is the province's. The passport in the drawer is Canada's.

• Band councils near you

  A First Nation next to your town is governed by its own elected council — a government, not a club.

Words you will meet

Tap a word. The lessons explain each one the first time it appears.

• municipal

  Belonging to a town or city government. Streets, water and garbage; parks, libraries and local buses.

• provincial

  Belonging to a province’s government, like Ontario’s. Schools and hospitals; highways and driver’s licences.

• federal

  Belonging to the government of all of Canada. Passports and the post; the armed forces and immigration.

• band council

  The elected government of a First Nation community — a chief and councillors who make by-laws and run local services.

• by-law

  A local law made by a town council or a band council.

• jurisdiction

  The set of jobs a government is responsible for — what is its to decide.

• citizen

  A member of a country, with rights to claim and responsibilities to keep.

What Ontario asks

The 2018 curriculum expectations this world teaches, in the Ministry’s own words. 4 of the course’s 35.

• B3.1 describe the major rights and responsibilities associated with citizenship in Canada

  describe the major rights and responsibilities associated with citizenship in Canada (e.g., rights: equal protection under the law, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to vote; responsibilities: to respect the rights of others, to participate in the electoral process and political decision making, to improve their communities)

• B3.2 describe the jurisdiction of different levels of government in Canada, as well as of some other elected…

  describe the jurisdiction of different levels of government in Canada, as well as of some other elected bodies (i.e., federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments; band councils ; school boards), and some of the services provided by each (e.g., health services, education, policing, defence, social assistance, garbage collection, water services, public transit, libraries)

• B3.3 describe some First Nations, Métis, and Inuit governance structures that currently exist in Canada

  describe some First Nations, Métis, and Inuit governance structures that currently exist in Canada (e.g., with reference to the Métis Nation of Ontario, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Chiefs of Ontario, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the Union of Ontario Indians, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy )

• B3.4 describe the shared responsibility of various levels of government for providing some services and for…

  describe the shared responsibility of various levels of government for providing some services and for dealing with selected social and environmental issues (e.g., services/issues related to transportation, health care, the environment, and/or crime and policing)