Deciding on Canada’s Best Places to Live is a relatively happy pursuit. Parsing through reams of data from Statistics Canada, Environment Canada and local real estate boards, the staff at MoneySense magazine assembles a picture of thriving, prosperous cities and towns with strong economies and easy access to health care and jobs. Local media from places in the top 10 trumpet the news, and municipal governments step out to remind residents how great their communities are.The process of compiling Canada’s Worst Places to Live is decidedly less pleasant.
While Canada is a rich country, there are cities and towns in each province and territory facing serious problems such as unemployment, crime and pollution. Some of these places are fighting back, while others are in decline. Many are simply victims of economics, geography or an unfortunate combination of the two.
Each year MoneySense magazine studies every community in Canada with a population of more than 10,000 people — 180 cities and towns in all — and ranks them in more than 20 different categories for a final figure out of a possible 105 points. Economic indicators such as unemployment rates, real estate prices and household income are included, as well as crime, access to health care and taxe
Canada's worst places to live 2011
