The antional capital, Ottawa, one of Canada's best cities to live in. This is looking north on Elgin Street with Canada's Parliament buildings in the background
Photo Credit: wiki commons

Best Canadian cities, version 2014

If you’re moving to Canada or within Canada, where should you look?

This year’s report by the Conference Board of Canada might help you decide.

It’s the third analysis by the Board since 2007 and is based on the 2011 Census, and National Household Survey.

The report is called City Magnets III: Attracting and Retaining Skilled Workers to Canadian Cities

It ranks 50 Canadian cities in 43 indicators grouped into seven overall categories. These are: Society, Health, Economy, Environment, Education, Innovation, and Housing.

“Attracting skilled workers is crucial to Canada’s competitiveness. Cities that fail to attract new people will struggle to stay prosperous and vibrant,” said Alan Arcand, Centre for Municipal Studies.

The report ranks the cities as A) strong attraction, B) attractive, C) room for improvement, and D) struggling to attract.

Only six cities made it to the “A” category, based on high marks in at least two categories and has attributes that draw people to its community, such as a strong economy, a culture of innovation, or a high quality of life. They extend from coast to coast to coast, include big and small cities, and urban and suburban centres.

  • They are
  • -Waterloo, Ontario, shines as one of the top cities for migrants, thanks to its well-earned reputation for innovation and education. The city ranked first in education, second in innovation, and third in the economy category.
  • -Calgary, Alberta is the only city to rank first in two categories: economy and innovation. These two categories lift Calgary to the top tier of cities despite weak results in education, health, and environment.
  • -Ottawa, Ontario (national capital) It’s appeal can be traced back to solid results in four key categories: society, education, innovation, and economy. Ottawa’s weakness is the health category, where it earns only a “C” grade due to low numbers of health care support workers.
  • Richmond Hill, Ontario, (near Toronto) is boosted by strong results in education, innovation and society. It is the third-most diverse city in Canada and boasts the highest number of graduates in engineering, science and math per capita.
  • Vancouver, British Columbia is appealing for its overall high quality of life, demonstrated by strong results on society, education and environment. Vancouver is one of the key destinations for new Canadians. The city’s major drawback is housing, where a lack of affordability is the primary reason for a “D” grade in this category, ranking 44 out of 50
  • St. John’s, Newfoundland rank is boosted by strong results in the economy and health categories. St. John’s has the second-best ratio of general practitioners and specialists per 100,000 people. As a result, the city is ranked second overall in health and is one of only two cities to get an “A” in this category.

Thirteen cities were in the “D” category and bear witness to the comment above by Alan Arcand.  These cities showed little population growth between 2006-2011, and two saw population decline.

Watch Alan Arcand on the results of the survey

Categories: Society
Tags: , ,

Do you want to report an error or a typo? Click here!

For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.