Best communities in Canada 2021: Methodology
Here s how Maclean’s picked the best communities in Canada to live and work remotely
The idea behind
Maclean’s Best Communities ranking is that while there are many intangible things that determine quality of life that can’t be quantified and measured, a lot of tangible things can be. In our inaugural edition of the ranking, we gathered data on 415 communities across the country and compared them based on categories we thought would be most important to the average person. Then the pandemic hit, and people’s priorities changed.
Our revamped ranking assumes remote work is here to stay, asking where people should move if they’re not tied to an office and a commute. We eliminated categories assessing the local economy, since remote workers won’t have to look for a nearby job, and added a category assessing internet quality. We also streamlined some categories. For example, we eliminated rent data in the affordability category
In eight of those municipalities, connections meeting the Canada Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission’s minimum standard of 50 megabits per second for download speeds are completely unavailable. The CRTC estimates just 46 per cent of rural Canadians have access to internet that meets that minimum standard, compared to 80 per cent for the country as a whole.
Byron Holland, chief executive of CIRA, an organization that advocates for quality broadband access and manages the .ca domain, says the data demonstrates the importance of improving connectivity as Canada tries to rebuild its economy after the pandemic.
Infrastructure spending will be key to the great kick-start, Holland says, especially for struggling businesses in the private sector: “I think one of the highest, best uses of money is connectivity. We’ve seen how critical it is.”