Six Canadian cities out of 50 have the winning combination that attract
migrants

OTTAWA, Jan. 13 /CNW Telbec/ - Calgary, Waterloo, Ottawa, Vancouver, St. John's and Richmond Hill have what migrants are looking for when choosing where to locate, according to the Conference Board's second report assessing the attractiveness of Canadian cities.

"Cities that fail to attract new people will struggle to stay prosperous and vibrant," said Mario Lefebvre, Director, Centre for Municipal Studies. "These six cities come out on top across all rankings, so they appear to have an overall winning combination that is attractive to migrants. Although it would be hard to imagine a more diverse group of cities, each has particular strengths that make them magnets to newcomers, both from within Canada and abroad."

City Magnets II: Benchmarking the Attractiveness of 50 Canadian Cities, analyzes and benchmarks the features that make Canadian cities attractive to skilled workers and mobile populations. The performance of these cities is compared on 41 indicators grouped across seven categories: Society, Health, Economy, Environment, Education, Innovation, and Housing.

The challenge in determining overall attractiveness is that when individuals are choosing a new city, they value attributes of city living differently. Weights were computed for each of the seven categories. For migrants with a university degree, the Education category matters the most (21 per cent) in the decision to locate, followed by Society (20 per cent), Innovation (19 per cent) and Economy (13 per cent). Migrants without a university education consider, in an overwhelming fashion, that the Economy category matters the most (33 per cent) and followed by Society (20 per cent).

"In deciding where to live, university-educated migrants prefer cities with higher Education and Society outcomes. Migrants without a university education place more value on a city's economic strength," said Lefebvre. "However, the study shows that a city that is attractive to a certain type of migrant ends up being attractive to all, so policy makers must be cautious in crafting policies aimed at attracting university graduates only."

Overall Grades

The six "A" performers - Calgary, Waterloo, Ottawa, Vancouver, St. John's and Richmond Hill, Ont. - range between big and small cities, from the West Coast to the East Coast, and include both urban and suburban centres. Specifically:

    
    -   Calgary's strong economic results come as no surprise given its
        performance over the past decade, but the city also ranked first in
        Innovation and second in Housing.
    -   Waterloo's worldwide reputation for high-tech excellence in education
        and business is well deserved. Ranked number-one in Education,
        Waterloo also posted strong results in Economy, Innovation and
        Housing.
    -   Ottawa reaps the benefits of a strong and well-educated public
        sector. The nation's capital excels in Innovation and Education, and,
        apart from Health, scores well across all categories.
    -   Richmond Hill, a fast-growing city north of Toronto, has become the
        second most diverse city in Canada. A well-educated workforce
        contributes to its high scores in the Education and Innovation
        categories.
    -   Vancouver enjoys an enviable climate and a vibrancy that comes from
        its young, diverse, and multicultural population.
    -   St. John's has achieved a strong productivity level that even
        surpasses that of Calgary and Edmonton. It is also a stellar
        performer in Health and Environment categories.
    

The "B" class includes 14 cities - Edmonton, Victoria, Markham, Vaughan, Kingston, Oakville, and Guelph are consistently in the top half of this group. The City of Toronto also earns an overall "B" grade. Although held back by lacklustre results in the Health and Environment categories (too few physicians for such a large population, and too many days of poor air quality), the City of Toronto leads all cities in the Society category, particularly the proportion of foreign-born population and the proportion of population employed in cultural occupations. In all, the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA) obtains five of the top 14 spots. The Toronto CMA attracted 35 per cent of Canada's immigrants (about 85,000 per year) between 2001 and 2006, but this is partly offset by migrants - 25,000 annually - leaving for other Canadian cities. London, Halifax, Lévis, Regina, Québec City, and Burlington also receive "B" grades.

A total of 21 cities get "C" grades, including three of Canada's largest urban centres: Winnipeg, Montréal, and Hamilton. Although an overall "C", Mississauga - with its high number of immigrants - gets a "B" in attractiveness among university-educated migrants. Four of Vancouver's suburbs - Richmond, Burnaby, Coquitlam, and Surrey - earn "C" grades, as does nearby Abbotsford. Generally, Vancouver's suburbs lag behind in Health and Economy. Sherbrooke, Gatineau, Kitchener, Barrie, Saskatoon, Moncton, Brampton, Kelowna, Thunder Bay, Peterborough, St. Catharines, and Sudbury also get "C" grades.

The "D" class includes nine small or mid-sized cities - four in Ontario: Oshawa, Brantford, Windsor, and Cambridge; four in Quebec: Longueuil, Saguenay, Trois-Rivières, and Laval, and Saint John, New Brunswick. Along with struggling economies in most cases, seven of these nine cities have shown little population growth, while the other two posted a decline in population (Saint John and Saguenay). These nine cities are also clustered near the bottom of the Innovation and Education categories.

Performance By Category

Society - Canada's largest cities post the best results, with Toronto and Montreal capturing the only two "A" grades. Toronto's suburbs rank highly, as do Vancouver and Victoria.

Health - Small and mid-sized cities dominate this category, which mainly measures per capita access to care. Only Kingston and St. John's get "A" grades. Vancouver and Quebec City are the only big cities to rank in the top 10. Suburban cities, which rely on services located in the urban cores, face the greatest challenges - 10 of the bottom 12 are neighbours of either Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.

Economy - Although the rankings are based on 2006 data and pre-date the recession, the Conference Board expects cities with strong economies back then to rebound and post the strongest showing following the downturn. Calgary, Edmonton and Vaughan earn the only "A" grades in the ranking; Edmonton's strong economy makes it particularly attractive to non-university educated migrants. Five Toronto-area suburbs make the top 10. Ottawa and Waterloo also rank in the top 10.

Environment - Seven of the eight cities in British Columbia included in this report earn "A" grades and dominate the top 10 rankings, due largely to good air quality and a mild climate. Montreal ranks last and Longueuil is also near the bottom. Mississauga, Burlington, Vaughan and Oakville also earn "D" grades.

Education - The "university towns" of Waterloo and Kingston outclass their counterparts and earn the only two "A" grades. Small and mid-sized cities dominate the results for teachers per student population, with four small Ontario cities (Burlington, Waterloo, Peterborough and Guelph) grabbing all the "A" grades on this indicator.

Innovation - Calgary, Richmond Hill and Ottawa get "As" for Innovation. Cities with broad manufacturing or resource-based economies generally fare less well in this category.

Housing - Small and mid-sized cities generally do the best in this category, thanks in particular to relatively affordable housing. The Quebec City suburb of Lévis leads all cities, and five other Quebec cities rank in the top 10. The opposite is true for all eight B.C. cities, where homes are generally expensive. As a result, these cities fall in the bottom half of the rankings and five of them, including Victoria and the Lower Mainland cities, get "D" grades.

The research was funded by 15 municipal and regional organizations from across Canada. The full report (120 pages) is available from the Conference Board's e-library for a price of $225.

For further information: Brent Dowdall, Media Relations, Tel.: [phone] ext. 448, E-mail: [email protected]