When we are looking for a city to settle in, there are 3 major things that stand out and determine our choice: the personal criteria (that we are looking for), the "time / period" during which we make the research and finally the status of the city (what the city is offering).
1) Personal criteria:
Each one of us lives a different life from the other, each one has an academic background and different professional experiences (various degrees, studies, knowledge etc ...), everyone has their own lifestyle (adventurous, sociable, lonely ...), each one has its own situation (single, married with or without children ...). Therefore the choices are many and will be quite different from each other.
We can summarize the most wanted criteria's as follow:
• The labor market (one of the most important criteria)
• The real estate market (average price of rent / mortgage);
• Access to education;
• The cost and quality of life (having a good salary is good, paying less expenses is better);
• The cultural, geographical and climate attraction (the latter is important criteria in Canada);
• The size of the city and the number of inhabitants;
• The language (French or English)
• The transport and public services;
• The existence of family members, friends or spouses already installed
• The health care services
Since we can not find all those criterias in the same city, we then have to filter by the most important (or most urgent, depending on the person's situation).
2) The "time / period" during which research
More than a decade ago Ontario was attracting the majority of immigrants. Few years later Ontario became less economic engine than it was and transition starts to be to the West. Internal migration in Canada is toward the West. Ontario still attracted a lot, but less. But since the oil price fall, this province know a resurgence of migration. In fact just yesterday (4 February 2016) in the news we could read that Ontario was the only province with an increase of employment.
As for the eastern provinces (maritime), they do not encourage much the immigrants to settle there or to retain those already installed there. And this regardless of the period during which we are searching.
That being said, the timing to choose where to elect domicile, also remains an important criterion to be taken into consideration.
3) The status of the city:
A better city to live is not necessarily the best in all criteria ( it does not exist), but it is much more a city that constantly maintains a level of quality of life above the average (national) and in a consistent manner.
The first resource is the website of the city itself, but it is rare to find objectives elements (all the websites of cities evoke the beauty of living at home). Another resource is the experience of those who live in this place or city, however, these stories must be filtered and we would pick-up what interests us, since eachone has its own lifestyle (as explained in the beginning of my message). Other official sources may do the job: Statistics Canada, Environment Canada (for the weather), The national network of air pollution monitoring (quality of air, pollution) Public Safety Canada (Measuring Crime in Canada), the Corporation housing and housing of Canada (for housing), Canada Revenue Agency (Taxation and provincial and territorial credits for individuals) ... through studies and expert analysis while keeping a critical thinking on them.
Why not The media/press for information on some aspects, especially the ones we did not pay attention to at the beginnings. Examples: find out if in a particular town, water or air is not polluted; if in such city it's easily to commute (problem of transit, "walkable" streets, traffic jam ...), the level of diversity of the population, if some programs exist in such university or college in this place ...
So an analysis of the city's status indicates whether it is consistent with our personal criteria.
The research will be complete if we are also informed about the characteristics of the province: taxes, social services, budgets (deficit or surplus) ...
I would refer to the study of the Conference Board Canada, but with a small update (because it dates from 2014):
Waterloo, Calgary, Ottawa, Richmond Hill, Vancouver, and St. John’s continue to appeal to newcomers, according to The Conference Board of Canada’s report assessing the attractiveness of Canadian cities.
“Attracting skilled workers is crucial to Canada’s competitiveness. Cities that fail to attract new people will struggle to stay prosperous and vibrant,” said Alan Arcand, Centre for Municipal Studies.
Highlights
• Waterloo, Calgary, Ottawa, Richmond Hill, Vancouver, and St. John’s remain the most attractive cities to live for newcomers since our last report in 2010.
• Attracting skilled workers is crucial to the competitiveness of Canada and its cities. Communities that fail to attract new people will struggle to stay prosperous and vibrant.
• Cities offering centres of innovation are valued the most when choosing where to live.
Good luck everyone for your searching !!
Kabi
