Duties
The state of Finland has been bilingual since the late 19th century. Its governmental offices and agencies use both domestic languages in contacts with the public. Each province was led by a governor, (maaherra, landshövding) appointed by the president on the recommendation of the cabinet. The governor was the head of the State Provincial Office (lääninhallitus, länsstyrelse), which acted as the joint regional authority for seven ministries in the following domains:
- social services and health care
- education and culture
- police administration
- rescue services
- traffic administration
- competition and consumer affairs
- judicial administration
The official administrative subentities under the Provincial Office authorities were the Registry Offices (Finnish maistraatti, Swedish magistrat). Formerly there was also a division to state local districts (Finnish kihlakunta, Swedish härad), which were districts for police, prosecution, and bailiff services, but there was reorganization such that 24 police districts were founded. These usually encompass multiple municipalities.
Provinces governed only state offices, such as the police. Most services, such as healthcare and maintenance of local streets, were and remain the responsibility of municipalities of Finland. Many municipalities are too small for a hospital and some other services, so they cooperate in municipality groups, e.g. health care districts, using borders that vary depending on the type of service. Often Swedish-language municipalities cooperate even if they do not share a border.
Read more about this topic: Provinces Of Finland
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