Saint John has been ranked the eighth best-run city in Canada.
The survey, the first of its kind in Canada, was conducted for Maclean’s Magazine by the Halifax-based Atlantic Institute for Market Studies. It doesn’t measure the quality of life in its surveyed locations, but looks at the efficiency of local governments.
“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,” says the accompanying article.
The findings rank the cities overall by looking at seven key areas; governance and finance, transportation, taxation, safety and protection, environmental health, economic development and recreation and culture.
Saint John was placed eighth out of 31 ranked cities. The survey took the largest cities in Canada, balancing the Greater Toronto area by taking several of its larger surrounding cities out of the running, and measured them against each other. Provincial capitals were also included on the list.
Saint John was given a C average overall, only one of many C ‘s doled out to other locations. The city also ranked 10th and 14th in efficiency and effectiveness, combining the seven factors to reach those numbers.
The governance and finance portion of the survey looked at the operations of the municipal government between 2005 and 2007, as well as debt and revenue. Saint John was given an A in total revenues per capita and general government costs per capita. Some of Saint John’s poorest scores were in the areas of taxation and economic development. The highest were in the areas of recreation and culture and transportation.
Burnaby, B.C., nabbed the top spot, while Charlottetown was in last place. Other Atlantic Canada cities in the ranking included Halifax, which placed 24th, St. John’s, N.L. (22nd) and and Fredericton (27th).