Parent Time

First, a word about the cities we selected. We began by tossing around the idea of measuring Canada's 15 or so largest cities by population, but that excluded too many provinces. Then we looked into measuring the two largest cities in each province, but that too seemed wrong-headed: the second-largest city in PEI, for example, has a population comparable to a large city block in Toronto or Montreal. Finding reliable statistics for these smaller cities was also extremely difficult.

We finally decided to examine the largest cities in each main region of the country: two on the west coast (Vancouver, Victoria); four in the Prairies (Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg); four in central Canada (Toronto, Ottawa-Hull, Quebec City, Montreal); and two in the Atlantic provinces (Halifax, St. John's). This meant we had to ignore two provinces (our apologies to PEI and New Brunswick) and the territories, but we feel this choice gave the best cross-section of the country that we could manage.

The survey was conducted by veteran Winnipeg journalist Judy Waytiuk, who did extensive interviews with social policy experts to come up with these criteria. The bulk of the statistics were gathered and checked by Steve Brearton, who brings the experience he gained working on Maclean's annual university rankings.

For each criterion, we ranked the cities against each other and assigned a score from zero to 100. For instance, the city with the best air quality scored 100, the worst garnered zero, a city in mid-range scored 50. Where there was occasional missing data for a city, we assigned a mid-range score.

Some categories earned cities positive points, while points in negative categories were subtracted from the total. Theoretically, a perfect score would be 1800 positive points and none of 1400 possible negative points.

Environment

Our environment scores covered both ecology and the parks and civic attractions that add to a city's family-friendliness: air quality (from Environment Canada's Air Quality Trends), number of attractions per 100,000 population, spending per capita on civic attractions, hectares of parkland per 1,000 population, and rates of hospitalization due to childhood asthma. Perfect score: 500 points.

Vancouver	336	A
St. John's	310	A
Victoria	277	A-
Halifax	256	B+
Winnipeg	250	B+
Quebec City	240	B
Ottawa-Hull	233	B
Montreal	192	C
Edmonton	161	C-
Toronto	155	C-
Saskatoon	130	D+
Calgary	103	D
Average	220
Median	237

Community

Community spirit is a difficult thing to measure, but there are some reliable indicators. Here's what we looked at: library materials spending and library circulation per borrower (from the Council of Administrations of Large Urban Public Libraries), charitable donations (using United Way contributions as the benchmark), participation level in civic-awareness activities and intensive volunteer commitments (provincial data from Stats Can). Perfect score: 500 points.

Saskatoon	268	A
Calgary	264	A
Winnipeg	216	A-
Quebec City	206	B+
Toronto	194	B+
Edmonton	184	B
Halifax	177	B
Ottawa-Hull	171	B
Vancouver	149	B-
St. John's	143	B-
Montreal	133	C
Victoria	130	C
Average	186
Median	181

Economy

For our purposes, a strong economy doesn't mean lots of wealthy businesspeople driving fancy cars - which explains Toronto's poor showing. Instead, we examined family-oriented economic indicators: food bank use (provincial data from the Canadian Association of Food Banks); poverty levels for children under five; poverty levels for all persons; shelter costs relative to income, and percentage of families with core housing needs (from Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation). Points subtracted from total; perfect score: 0 out of 500.

Quebec City	113	A
Calgary	150	A-
Halifax	158	A-
Edmonton	171	B+
Saskatoon	175	B+
Ottawa-Hull	226	B
Victoria	234	B-
Vancouver	242	C
Winnipeg	247	C
St. John's	258	C-
Toronto	340	D
Montreal	345	D
Average	222
Median	230

Crime

Unlike, say, air quality, which is similar throughout a city, crime can vary drastically from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. We ignored homicides and focused on crimes that affect typical families, all from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics: assault rates per 100,000 population, property crimes, drug offences, and number of youths charged with violent crimes. Points subtracted from total; perfect score: 0 out of 400.

St. John's	25	A
Halifax	34	A-
Quebec City	36	A-
Ottawa-Hull	68	B+
Victoria	95	B
Calgary	96	B
Edmonton	97	B
Saskatoon	101	B
Winnipeg	142	C
Montreal	254	D+
Vancouver	277	D+
Toronto	332	D
Average	130
Median	97

Health Care

Health is a provincial jurisdiction, so most of our statistics reflected that, including length of wait for specialized treatments (Fraser Institute) and hospitalization rates for children under 19 (Health Canada). To measure the safety of playgrounds and roads we looked at bone fractures in children under 14 and cycling accidents for children aged five to 15. Finally, we included infant mortality rates by city. Points subtracted from total; perfect score: 0 out of 500.

Ottawa-Hull	63	A
Toronto	77	A-
Montreal	90	B+
Halifax	100	B
Quebec City	100	B
Winnipeg	172	B-
Calgary	174	B-
Edmonton	210	C
St. John's	262	C-
Vancouver	301	D+
Victoria	361	D+
Saskatoon	393	D
Average	192
Median	173

Education

Because education is a provincial responsibility, reliable, consistent statistics by city are impossible to obtain. We compared provincial numbers (from Stats Can) in five categories: total spending per capita, teacher/pupil ratio, total spending per capita, teacher-pupil ratio, percentage of Internet use in elementary schools, percentage of high-school completion, ratio of university graduates. Perfect score: 500 points.

Saskatchewan	385	A
Manitoba	302	B+
Newfoundland	236	B
Quebec	218	B-
Ontario	207	C
Nova Scotia	203	C
British Columbia	192	C-
Alberta	181	D
Average	241
Median	213

Child Care

Here's another area where there only reliable numbers were provincial: spending per child, percentage of daycare centre revenues derived from subsidy and percentage of staff with at least two years' ECE training. Perfect score: 300 points.

Ontario	268	A
Manitoba	220	B+
British Columbia	210	B+
Alberta	147	B
Quebec	117	C
Saskatchewan	111	C-
Nova Scotia	101	C-
Newfoundland	85	D
Average	157
Median	132

April 2001