Halifax ranks 24th among 31 cities in the Maclean’s review.
Halifax ranks among the low performers in Maclean’s magazine’s review of Canada’s best-run cities.The largest city in Atlantic Canada comes in at No. 24 among 31 cities that the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies scrutinized for the new issue of Maclean’s, which hits newsstands today.
“Yes, that is pretty low on the list,” was all a Maclean’s representative would say Thursday about Halifax’s placing.
The best-run city in Canada is Burnaby, B.C., according to the magazine. It is described as a smooth-running municipal machine that others should emulate. The only Atlantic Canadian city to make the top 10 is Saint John, N.B. Halifax Regional Municipality, which can lay claim to the most awkward moniker on the list, is just ahead of other poorly ranked cities such as Fredericton, Charlottetown, Victoria, Laval, Que., and Barrie, Windsor and Kingston in Ontario.
The magazine describes Charlottetown, ranked 28th, as a city that “may be resting too much on its homey reputation and heritage industry.” St. John’s, N.L., and Thunder Bay, Ont., are among the cities that rank higher than Halifax.
AIMS, a Halifax think-tank, considered population, police and fire services, public transit, road conditions, garbage collection, socio-economic status and taxation levels in conducting the first review of its type for Maclean’s.