Under the former
Municipal Act, 1990, a town was both an urban and a local municipality. Under this former legislation, a locality with a population of 2,000 or more could have been incorporated as a town by Ontario's Municipal Board upon review of an application from 75 or more residents of the locality. • "existed and formed part of a county, a regional or district municipality or the County of Oxford for municipal purposes" became a lower-tier municipality yet retained its name as a town; and • "existed and did not form part of a county, a regional or district municipality or the County of Oxford for municipal purposes" became a single-tier municipality yet retained its name as a town. The current legislation also provides lower and single-tier municipalities with the authority to name themselves as "towns", or other former municipal status types such as "
cities", "villages" or "townships", or generically as "municipalities". == Towns in Ontario ==