Ottawa-Gatineau most livable community in Canada, says MoneySense magazine
Thu Apr 29, 6:01 PM
The Canadian Press

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By The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Ottawa and nearby Gatineau, Que. are Canada's most livable community, says a report by MoneySense magazine.

The Toronto-based personal finance publication says its study of 179 Canadian cities of more than 10,000 people ranks the country's capital and its nearby suburb top on the list for livability.

The study in the magazine's latest issue, available this week, looked at everything from a city's prosperity, affordability, weather and lifestyles in assessing the rankings.

That means household incomes, housing prices, jobs and local health and social services factored into the evaluation, Sarah Efron, the magazine's managing editor, said in an interview Thursday.

“The idea is not to look at things a tourist would look at such as how pretty the city is,” said Efron.

“The idea is to look at things that impact livability, things like weather and housing prices, jobs, income and health care — those sort of measures.”

Following Ottawa-Gatineau on the list were the Ontario cities of Kingston and Burlington and New Brunswick communities of Fredericton and Moncton.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Repentigny, a community north of Montreal, Brandon, Man., Victoria, Winnipeg and Levis, Que., a city across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City.

Victoria, last year's No. 1 most livable city, fell to eighth this year, mainly because of skyrocketing housing prices in the B.C. capital.

Calgary ranked 27th, Vancouver 29th, Toronto 85th and Montreal 120th, said the magazine, published by Rogers Media.

Housing prices were a key factor to livability as well as diversified economies with government, military or other public sector employment that helped offset the impact of last year's recession, said Efron.

“Basically we found that in general, cities that were somewhat recession proof did well this year.”

Efron said Canada's biggest cities — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver — were far down the list because of the high cost of housing in those communities.

“What you see is that the cities you think of as the big, exciting cool cities — (are further down the list) when you really look across the board at livability. Toronto, Vancouver are great places to live but you do sacrifice something by living there, which is this overall across the board dollars-and-cents evaluation of things.”

http://list.moneysense.ca/rankings/best-places-to-live/2010/prosperity/Default.aspx?sp2=1&d1=a&sc1=0
overall
rank City Prov. Average
household income Household
discretionary income New cars Unemployment Provincial
income tax Provincial
sales tax¹
▲
1 Ottawa-Gatineau ON 36 32 22 38 3 5
2 Kingston ON 69 52 111 22 3 5
3 Burlington ON 16 15 26 54 3 5
4 Fredericton NB 85 95 65 14 8 5
5 Moncton NB 109 113 23 29 8 5
6 Repentigny QC 50 56 5 36 12 4
7 Brandon MB 104 142 156 6 10 3
8 Victoria BC 61 28 171 74 1 3
9 Winnipeg MB 70 93 119 31 10 3
10 Lévis QC 72 98 14 6 12 4
11 Lethbridge AB 58 38 141 17 5 1
12 London ON 62 58 41 113 3 5
13 Laval QC 76 68 21 54 12 4
14 Halifax NS 73 111 7 50 11 5
15 Newmarket ON 13 4 32 39 3 5
16 Edmonton AB 27 10 45 74 5 1
17 Peterborough ON 91 71 123 83 3 5
18 Quebec QC 133 135 8 22 12 4
19 Guelph ON 41 22 84 83 3 5
20 Joliette QC 163 157 67 57 12 4
21 Sherbrooke QC 150 152 47 22 12 4
22 Saskatoon SK 48 50 153 13 7 2
23 Yellowknife NW 4 5 29 41 2 1
24 Thunder Bay ON 100 63 147 89 3 5
25 Windsor ON 57 39 44 166 3 5
26 Mississauga ON 24 62 15 119 3 5
27 Calgary AB 7 3 13 65 5 1
28 Regina SK 43 49 133 19 7 2
29 Vancouver BC 56 53 89 109 1 3
30 Clarington ON 28 19 47 101 3 5
31 Waterloo ON 23 14 61 131 3 5
32 Oakville ON 2 7 9 79 3 5
33 Whitehorse YT 45 1 1 87 4 1
34 Canmore AB 5 13 105 11 5 1
35 Cobourg ON 97 100 90 142 3 5
36 Leamington ON 54 82 96 122 3 5
37 Vernon BC 101 121 164 22 1 3
38 Centre Wellington ON 32 40 130 22 3 5
39 Saint-Jerome QC 166 149 19 87 12 4
40 Medicine Hat AB 42 29 125 9 5 1
41 Brossard QC 39 80 18 101 12 4
42 Port Hope ON 75 60 100 72 3 5
43 Saint-Georges QC 145 167 72 21 12 4
44 Saint-Hyacinthe QC 157 161 53 47 12 4
45 Woodstock ON 93 83 128 92 3 5
46 Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu QC 125 141 69 6 12 4
47 Rimouski QC 148 137 42 122 12 4
48 Oshawa ON 52 45 27 155 3 5
49 Yorkton SK 137 131 175 12 7 2
50 New Westminster BC 87 69 137 80 1 3

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