Canada’s best and worst run cities

This survey, the first of its kind in Canada, provides citizens in 31 cities across the country with comparative data on how well—or poorly—their city is run, measured by the cost and quality of the public services it delivers. (Why 31? We took the 30 largest cities in Canada, added whatever provincial capitals were not on the list, then subtracted a few cities from the Greater Toronto Area for better regional balance. Somehow that left 31.)

Though the overall results—Burnaby, Saskatoon and Surrey, B.C. lead the pack; Charlottetown, Kingston, Ont., and Fredericton trail—will be of particular interest, they are less important than the process this is intended to kick off. We aim not merely to start some good barroom arguments, but to help voters to hold their representatives to better account, and indeed to help city governments themselves. For without some sort of yardstick to measure their performance, either against other cities or against their own past record, how can they hope to know whether they are succeeding?

To compile the survey, Maclean’s commissioned the Halifax-based Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, expanding on the institute’s earlier work measuring the performance of municipalities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Unlike other studies, this does not try to measure quality of life, or which city is the “best place to live.” Rather, it focuses on the contribution of local governments to this end.

This survey looks at a city’s efficiency—the cost of producing results—and the effectiveness of its services, including how well each city does when it comes to things like maintaining roads and parks, picking up garbage and putting out fires.

North Bay: Canada’s new immigrant destination.

By Chantal Flores. Source: Canadian immigrant.ca

A case study by Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) has recognized North Bay, Ontario’s successes in terms of immigrant attraction and retention.

The community project included three cities: North Bay, Brockville and Chatham-Kent. The results will contribute to new government policy aimed at encouraging immigrants to settle in communities other than major cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

North Bay’s mayor, Vic Fedeli, stated that the city's focus on immigrant attraction and retention originated after realizing that the city was homogenous.

“It was just a natural feeling that we needed to expand our horizons. When we did our business and retention program we realized there were huge gaps in our labour pool and we knew that immigration was one way to bring people here,” he states.

The first step before developing the project was to work with the area newcomers. Marla Tremblay of the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development formed the North Bay Newcomer Network (NNN). In April 2006, an immigration symposium was held with more than 80 participants. One of the main outcomes of the symposium was the need to establish an immigrant settlement agency for both attraction and retention.

FedNor, a federal regional development organization in Ontario, provided funding in December of 2006 to hire a researcher and give NNN a better understanding of newcomers’ needs.

After listening to Citizenship and Immigration Canada note how settlement agencies are funded, NNN members chose a non-profit media organization, Young People’s Press, to apply for settlement funding. Their work resulted in the opening of the North Bay and District Multicultural Centre in February 2008.

With the progress that has happened in three years, Fideli still sees immigration as a priority. “We’ve got a lot of sweat equity into our immigration strategy and it would be a huge step backward to let it fall from being a priority,” he says.

Statistics Canada points out that by 2011, all net growth in the Canadian labour force will be through immigration, and by 2026 all growth in population will be through immigration.