Why Misinformation is a Municipal Problem, Not Just a Federal One

When people think about misinformation, their minds often leap to foreign interference, national elections, or viral conspiracy theories. But what happens when the misinformation is about your water bill, your local fire hall, or whether a new bylaw actually passed?

As a longtime municipal communicator and a researcher focused on misinformation in Alberta’s local governments, I can say with certainty: misinformation isn’t just a global or federal issue, it’s a local one.

And it's growing.

Local Misinformation Hits Close to Home

Municipal governments are responsible for the services residents interact with most often: roads, waste collection, emergency response, land use, recreation, and more. These services are practical, tangible, and deeply personal. That makes them fertile ground for misunderstanding, frustration, and misinformation.

From my research with over 100 Alberta municipal communicators, we found:

• Increased confusion and misinformation around service changes, especially during emergencies and rapid policy shifts

• Misattribution of responsibility, with residents blaming municipalities for provincial or federal decisions

• Eroding trust, particularly when people feel “left out of the loop” or when falsehoods circulate faster than the facts

  
  

Misinformation isn't always malicious. It often emerges from information gaps or complex bureaucratic processes that aren’t easily understood.

When Communicators Become Crisis Managers

Local government communicators are increasingly becoming first responders to misinformation, yet they’re often under-resourced, undertrained, and emotionally overstretched.

One communicator told us, “I never thought my job would be about correcting people’s Facebook posts just to protect our team’s reputation.”

Another said, “We’re expected to be strategic, but we spend most of our time just trying to stop fires from spreading.”

This constant reactive mode leaves little room for long-term strategy, innovation, or wellness. It also underscores the need for system-wide shifts, not just quick fixes.

Why This Matters Now

Municipalities are navigating more complex social and political terrain than ever before, including housing, climate, infrastructure, reconciliation, and economic development. To move these conversations forward, we need public trust.

And public trust is easier to lose than it is to rebuild.

Tackling misinformation at the municipal level means recognizing that:

• We need proactive strategies, not just reactive ones

• Local governments must be trained and equipped, not just expected to “figure it out”

• Leadership support is not optional, it is foundational

  
  

What’s Next

This post is the first in a five-part series based on my graduate research with the Alberta Municipal Communicators Association. I’ll be diving into the emotional toll on communicators, practical response strategies, the ethical use of AI, and how systems thinking can offer a path forward.

If we want strong communities, we need strong communication ecosystems, and that means treating local misinformation as the serious issue it is.