Burlington remains best city in GTA, second best in Canada, says MoneySense
Burlington, Ont.-March 20, 2012- MoneySense magazine has named Burlington the GTA’s top city and the second best city in which to live in Canada, according to information released on the magazine’s website.
“On behalf of my colleagues on Council, we are all very proud to be recognized as one of Canada’s great cities, a place where people, nature and business thrive,” said Mayor Rick Goldring. “Burlington will continue to create and maintain vibrant neighbourhoods, working with our community partners to create greater prosperity for all, striving to serve the community with a government people can trust and respect.”
Burlington appears in MoneySense’s top 10 list behind Ottawa, and is the only GTA city to appear in the top 10. Find Burlington in the top 25 places to live map. MoneySense has previously named Burlington the third best city in Canada in 2011 and 2010.
“Being recognized as one of Canada’s best cities is good for government officials but even more important for the people who live, work and play here,” said City Manager Jeff Fielding. “This ranking could not have been earned without having a strong, collaborative local government and a dedicated and professional staff.”
Best Places to Live 2012 measures 190 cities, up from 180 last year. To come up with the ranking, MoneySense gathered information on Census Metropolitan Areas (CMA) and Census Agglomeration areas that had a population of 10,000 or greater (and for which the required data was available). They then broke up the CMAs of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Quebec City, Hamilton, St. Catharines-Niagara, Oshawa, Edmonton and Kitchener into their component cities of 50,000 or more in population.
“There is a direct connection between a city’s quality of life and the success of the local business community,” said John Chisholm, Chair of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation. “Company executives and employees want to be able to say ‘this is a place where I would like to live and work; a place that offers a variety of lifestyles, a chance for life/work balance and where my family is safe.'”
This year MoneySense included three new lists: Best Place to Retire (Burlington ranked seventh); Best Place to Raise Kids (ranked second); and Best Place for Jobs (eighth).
MoneySense grades cities in categories that include:
- Walk/Bike to Work: This represents the percentage of people who walked or took their bike to work.
- Weather: Ideal volume of precipitation is considered to be 700 ml per year. Source: Environment Canada.
- Air quality: Data was from monitoring stations in or nearest to each city as reported by the National Air Pollution Surveillance Network.
- Population growth: Higher creates problems, lower means less opportunities. Cities with negative growth received 0 points. 2011 figures from Statistics Canada.
- Unemployment: 2011 data from Statistics Canada when provided and 2012 estimates derived from Canadian Demographics.
- Housing: Average house average prices from reports and listings by MLS, Canadian Real Estate Association, and the Real Estate Boards of Toronto, Fraser Valley, Vancouver and Quebec. Time to buy was derived from average price divided by average 2012 estimated household income sourced from Canadian Demographics.
- Household income: 2012 estimates as per Canadian Demographics.
- Discretionary income: Discretionary household income as a percentage of total household income derived from 2012 estimates as per Canadian Demographics.
- New cars: 2009-2011 model year vehicles as a percent of total vehicles as per Canadian Demographics.
- Income taxes: Cities ranked (lower is better) according to the rate of combined federal and provincial (or territorial) income tax paid on a single person income of $50,000 as per http://www.taxtips.ca/.
- Sales taxes: Cities ranked (lower is better) according to the rate of provincial or territorial sales tax.
- Crime: Violent crime rates, total crime rates per 100,000 people and crime severity rates for 2010 from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics. (Lower is better in all three cases.)
- Doctors: Number of general practice and specialist physicians per community provided by the Canadian Medical Association and converted to doctors per 1,000 people.
- Health professionals: Percentage of people in each city who are employed in health occupations according to the 2006 census.
- Transit: Based on the percentage of the workforce utilizing public transit according to the 2006 census.
- Amenities: One point each for a hospital, university and college.
- Culture: Based on the percentage of people employed in arts, culture, recreation and sports.
Visit MoneySense rankings for more details about the list and methodology. For more about Burlington,
visit:
