The Court found that the Métis Nation of Alberta Association ("MNAA") was not an incorporated municipality. Although MNAA was incorporated under a provincial act and had a complex governance structure, it did not have powers of self-government and did not provide the services that a municipality typically provides. The taxpayer's contention that MNAA would have provided municipal-like services if given greater funding was not germaine to the point that it did not in fact provide such services.
Moreover, MNAA simply could not fall within the ordinary meaning of "municipality", nor Alberta's Municipal Government Act, which contemplated that a municipality be formed "for an area." Dawson J.A. stated (at para. 20):
It may be possible to envision a different legal model, in which a municipality may be established on some basis other than a geographic standard. However, as counsel for the Minister observed, legislative change would be required to permit such an outcome.