The 5 Best Cities in Canada: The Fine Print
By Dan Bortolotti
First, a word about the cities we selected. We began by tossing around the idea of measuring Canada's 15 or so largest cities by population, but that excluded too many provinces. Then we looked into measuring the two largest cities in each province, but that too seemed wrong-headed: the second-largest city in PEI, for example, has a population comparable to a large city block in Toronto or Montreal. Finding reliable statistics for these smaller cities was also extremely difficult.
We finally decided to examine the largest cities in each main region of the country: two on the west coast (Vancouver, Victoria); four in the Prairies (Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg); four in central Canada (Toronto, Ottawa-Hull, Quebec City, Montreal); and two in the Atlantic provinces (Halifax, St. John's). This meant we had to ignore two provinces (our apologies to PEI and New Brunswick) and the territories, but we feel this choice gave the best cross-section of the country that we could manage.
The survey was conducted by veteran Winnipeg journalist Judy Waytiuk, who did extensive interviews with social policy experts to come up with these criteria. The bulk of the statistics were gathered and checked by Steve Brearton, who brings the experience he gained working on Maclean's annual university rankings.
For each criterion, we ranked the cities against each other and assigned a score from zero to 100. For instance, the city with the best air quality scored 100, the worst garnered zero, a city in mid-range scored 50. Where there was occasional missing data for a city, we assigned a mid-range score.
Some categories earned cities positive points, while points in negative categories were subtracted from the total. Theoretically, a perfect score would be 1800 positive points and none of 1400 possible negative points.
Environment
Our environment scores covered both ecology and the parks and civic attractions that add to a city's family-friendliness: air quality (from Environment Canada's Air Quality Trends), number of attractions per 100,000 population, spending per capita on civic attractions, hectares of parkland per 1,000 population, and rates of hospitalization due to childhood asthma. Perfect score: 500 points.
Vancouver 336 A
St. John's 310 A
Victoria 277 A-
Halifax 256 B+
Winnipeg 250 B+
Quebec City 240 B
Ottawa-Hull 233 B
Montreal 192 C
Edmonton 161 C-
Toronto 155 C-
Saskatoon 130 D+
Calgary 103 D
Average 220
Median 237
Community
Community spirit is a difficult thing to measure, but there are some reliable indicators. Here's what we looked at: library materials spending and library circulation per borrower (from the Council of Administrations of Large Urban Public Libraries), charitable donations (using United Way contributions as the benchmark), participation level in civic-awareness activities and intensive volunteer commitments (provincial data from Stats Can). Perfect score: 500 points.
Saskatoon 268 A
Calgary 264 A
Winnipeg 216 A-
Quebec City 206 B+
Toronto 194 B+
Edmonton 184 B
Halifax 177 B
Ottawa-Hull 171 B
Vancouver 149 B-
St. John's 143 B-
Montreal 133 C
Victoria 130 C
Average 186
Median 181
Economy
For our purposes, a strong economy doesn't mean lots of wealthy businesspeople driving fancy cars - which explains Toronto's poor showing. Instead, we examined family-oriented economic indicators: food bank use (provincial data from the Canadian Association of Food Banks); poverty levels for children under five; poverty levels for all persons; shelter costs relative to income, and percentage of families with core housing needs (from Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation). Points subtracted from total; perfect score: 0 out of 500.
Quebec City 113 A
Calgary 150 A-
Halifax 158 A-
Edmonton 171 B+
Saskatoon 175 B+
Ottawa-Hull 226 B
Victoria 234 B-
Vancouver 242 C
Winnipeg 247 C
St. John's 258 C-
Toronto 340 D
Montreal 345 D
Average 222
Median 230
Crime
Unlike, say, air quality, which is similar throughout a city, crime can vary drastically from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. We ignored homicides and focused on crimes that affect typical families, all from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics: assault rates per 100,000 population, property crimes, drug offences, and number of youths charged with violent crimes. Points subtracted from total; perfect score: 0 out of 400.
St. John's 25 A
Halifax 34 A-
Quebec City 36 A-
Ottawa-Hull 68 B+
Victoria 95 B
Calgary 96 B
Edmonton 97 B
Saskatoon 101 B
Winnipeg 142 C
Montreal 254 D+
Vancouver 277 D+
Toronto 332 D
Average 130
Median 97
Health Care
Health is a provincial jurisdiction, so most of our statistics reflected that, including length of wait for specialized treatments (Fraser Institute) and hospitalization rates for children under 19 (Health Canada). To measure the safety of playgrounds and roads we looked at bone fractures in children under 14 and cycling accidents for children aged five to 15. Finally, we included infant mortality rates by city. Points subtracted from total; perfect score: 0 out of 500.
Ottawa-Hull 63 A
Toronto 77 A-
Montreal 90 B+
Halifax 100 B
Quebec City 100 B
Winnipeg 172 B-
Calgary 174 B-
Edmonton 210 C
St. John's 262 C-
Vancouver 301 D+
Victoria 361 D+
Saskatoon 393 D
Average 192
Median 173
Education
Because education is a provincial responsibility, reliable, consistent statistics by city are impossible to obtain. We compared provincial numbers (from Stats Can) in five categories: total spending per capita, teacher/pupil ratio, total spending per capita, teacher-pupil ratio, percentage of Internet use in elementary schools, percentage of high-school completion, ratio of university graduates. Perfect score: 500 points.
Saskatchewan 385 A
Manitoba 302 B+
Newfoundland 236 B
Quebec 218 B-
Ontario 207 C
Nova Scotia 203 C
British Columbia 192 C-
Alberta 181 D
Average 241
Median 213
Child Care
Here's another area where there only reliable numbers were provincial: spending per child, percentage of daycare centre revenues derived from subsidy and percentage of staff with at least two years' ECE training. Perfect score: 300 points.
Ontario 268 A
Manitoba 220 B+
British Columbia 210 B+
Alberta 147 B
Quebec 117 C
Saskatchewan 111 C-
Nova Scotia 101 C-
Newfoundland 85 D
Average 157
Median 132
April 2001
By Dan Bortolotti
First, a word about the cities we selected. We began by tossing around the idea of measuring Canada's 15 or so largest cities by population, but that excluded too many provinces. Then we looked into measuring the two largest cities in each province, but that too seemed wrong-headed: the second-largest city in PEI, for example, has a population comparable to a large city block in Toronto or Montreal. Finding reliable statistics for these smaller cities was also extremely difficult.
We finally decided to examine the largest cities in each main region of the country: two on the west coast (Vancouver, Victoria); four in the Prairies (Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg); four in central Canada (Toronto, Ottawa-Hull, Quebec City, Montreal); and two in the Atlantic provinces (Halifax, St. John's). This meant we had to ignore two provinces (our apologies to PEI and New Brunswick) and the territories, but we feel this choice gave the best cross-section of the country that we could manage.
The survey was conducted by veteran Winnipeg journalist Judy Waytiuk, who did extensive interviews with social policy experts to come up with these criteria. The bulk of the statistics were gathered and checked by Steve Brearton, who brings the experience he gained working on Maclean's annual university rankings.
For each criterion, we ranked the cities against each other and assigned a score from zero to 100. For instance, the city with the best air quality scored 100, the worst garnered zero, a city in mid-range scored 50. Where there was occasional missing data for a city, we assigned a mid-range score.
Some categories earned cities positive points, while points in negative categories were subtracted from the total. Theoretically, a perfect score would be 1800 positive points and none of 1400 possible negative points.
Environment
Our environment scores covered both ecology and the parks and civic attractions that add to a city's family-friendliness: air quality (from Environment Canada's Air Quality Trends), number of attractions per 100,000 population, spending per capita on civic attractions, hectares of parkland per 1,000 population, and rates of hospitalization due to childhood asthma. Perfect score: 500 points.
Vancouver 336 A
St. John's 310 A
Victoria 277 A-
Halifax 256 B+
Winnipeg 250 B+
Quebec City 240 B
Ottawa-Hull 233 B
Montreal 192 C
Edmonton 161 C-
Toronto 155 C-
Saskatoon 130 D+
Calgary 103 D
Average 220
Median 237
Community
Community spirit is a difficult thing to measure, but there are some reliable indicators. Here's what we looked at: library materials spending and library circulation per borrower (from the Council of Administrations of Large Urban Public Libraries), charitable donations (using United Way contributions as the benchmark), participation level in civic-awareness activities and intensive volunteer commitments (provincial data from Stats Can). Perfect score: 500 points.
Saskatoon 268 A
Calgary 264 A
Winnipeg 216 A-
Quebec City 206 B+
Toronto 194 B+
Edmonton 184 B
Halifax 177 B
Ottawa-Hull 171 B
Vancouver 149 B-
St. John's 143 B-
Montreal 133 C
Victoria 130 C
Average 186
Median 181
Economy
For our purposes, a strong economy doesn't mean lots of wealthy businesspeople driving fancy cars - which explains Toronto's poor showing. Instead, we examined family-oriented economic indicators: food bank use (provincial data from the Canadian Association of Food Banks); poverty levels for children under five; poverty levels for all persons; shelter costs relative to income, and percentage of families with core housing needs (from Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation). Points subtracted from total; perfect score: 0 out of 500.
Quebec City 113 A
Calgary 150 A-
Halifax 158 A-
Edmonton 171 B+
Saskatoon 175 B+
Ottawa-Hull 226 B
Victoria 234 B-
Vancouver 242 C
Winnipeg 247 C
St. John's 258 C-
Toronto 340 D
Montreal 345 D
Average 222
Median 230
Crime
Unlike, say, air quality, which is similar throughout a city, crime can vary drastically from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. We ignored homicides and focused on crimes that affect typical families, all from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics: assault rates per 100,000 population, property crimes, drug offences, and number of youths charged with violent crimes. Points subtracted from total; perfect score: 0 out of 400.
St. John's 25 A
Halifax 34 A-
Quebec City 36 A-
Ottawa-Hull 68 B+
Victoria 95 B
Calgary 96 B
Edmonton 97 B
Saskatoon 101 B
Winnipeg 142 C
Montreal 254 D+
Vancouver 277 D+
Toronto 332 D
Average 130
Median 97
Health Care
Health is a provincial jurisdiction, so most of our statistics reflected that, including length of wait for specialized treatments (Fraser Institute) and hospitalization rates for children under 19 (Health Canada). To measure the safety of playgrounds and roads we looked at bone fractures in children under 14 and cycling accidents for children aged five to 15. Finally, we included infant mortality rates by city. Points subtracted from total; perfect score: 0 out of 500.
Ottawa-Hull 63 A
Toronto 77 A-
Montreal 90 B+
Halifax 100 B
Quebec City 100 B
Winnipeg 172 B-
Calgary 174 B-
Edmonton 210 C
St. John's 262 C-
Vancouver 301 D+
Victoria 361 D+
Saskatoon 393 D
Average 192
Median 173
Education
Because education is a provincial responsibility, reliable, consistent statistics by city are impossible to obtain. We compared provincial numbers (from Stats Can) in five categories: total spending per capita, teacher/pupil ratio, total spending per capita, teacher-pupil ratio, percentage of Internet use in elementary schools, percentage of high-school completion, ratio of university graduates. Perfect score: 500 points.
Saskatchewan 385 A
Manitoba 302 B+
Newfoundland 236 B
Quebec 218 B-
Ontario 207 C
Nova Scotia 203 C
British Columbia 192 C-
Alberta 181 D
Average 241
Median 213
Child Care
Here's another area where there only reliable numbers were provincial: spending per child, percentage of daycare centre revenues derived from subsidy and percentage of staff with at least two years' ECE training. Perfect score: 300 points.
Ontario 268 A
Manitoba 220 B+
British Columbia 210 B+
Alberta 147 B
Quebec 117 C
Saskatchewan 111 C-
Nova Scotia 101 C-
Newfoundland 85 D
Average 157
Median 132
April 2001
