It’s been a while since I wrote a personal blog post on a
topic. I suppose that’s because of my
technical background and most of my interests are in that area. But news came out today that has many in the
community I call home up in arms and I think it’s worth discussing.
Today MoneySense magazine published a list of the bestplaces to live and ranked 190 communities across Canada. Brockville, which is the area I call home
(and gladly so) ranked 165 on the list.
Now this ranking takes several categories into consideration and then
ranks the communities based on a percentageof points assigned to each category.
The numbers are less than flattering for Brockville but is there truth
behind the numbers?
If you aren’t familiar with Brockville it’s a scenic city
located in the heart of the 1000 Islands Region of Ontario on the shores of the
St. Lawrence Seaway. No one would
question that its tourist potential is huge.
So why does it rank so low on places to live? Well again based on statistics alone one can’t
argue that there aren’t many career opportunities. True companies like Proctor and Gamble have
factories in Brockville and they do hire from time to time but those
opportunities are few and far between and generally are labour positions which don't suit an office junky like me.
My family moved to the area just over two years ago and both my wife and
I have to commute out of town to work.
As an IT (Information Technology) professional I have worked in both
Ottawa and Kingston since coming to the area. Don't get me wrong it's not for lack of trying to find full-time work in Brockville but there just doesn't seem to be a demand for my line of work. But is that a bad thing? Sure it would be nice to have my workplace closer to my life but it's not the end of the world if it's not possible. It's just a matter of perspective.
Take this perspective on it; the cost of living is cheaper
than Kingston and much cheaper than Ottawa.
Brockville is located right on the 401 and just minutes from the 416
making it an ideal location for someone who doesn’t mind commuting to
work. Living in Brockville also means living
in a community where a few hundred thousand dollars means a house with a large yard, where you know your neighbours (and since there is space between you and them, like them too) compared to the bigger cities like Kingston or Ottawa where a similar dollar
amount means a tiny cramped townhouse.
Brockville is roughly and hour commute from Kingston (3) and
an hour commute from Ottawa (1) putting it in a great location to work in either
city. An added bonus is that many
companies now allow their employees to spend some of their time telecommuting
(aka working from home) in an attempt to lower their carbon footprint. And besides if you put it all in perspective
I know people that live in the big cities that spend more time in gridlock than
I do commuting to and from work.
As for culture, I’m sure if you look exclusively at numbers
you’ll find that Ottawa and Kingston may have more culture than Brockville but
there are also more people in those communities and I’m willing to bet that it’s
cheaper to see an artist perform (not to mention more intimate) at the
Brockville Arts Centre than it would be to see the same artist perform at
ScotiaBank Place or even the K-Rock Centre in Kingston.
I could go on and on but my problem with reports like the
one from MoneySense is that they are so black and white. Perhaps in the future when a report like this
is released it should be titled “Canada’s Best Places to Statistically Live”. Are the areas that Brockville can improve? Sure but isn’t that something that can be said
about every community? The bottom line
is that the people who live in Brockville, for the most part, love the
city. The people, who come to visit
every year, also love the city. So why
should we care that the staff of MoneySense Magazine, who probably have never
been to Brockville, don’t consider it a worthy place to live?
If it’s any
consolation, the community I grew up in, Temiskaming Shores, is ranked at 171
and I consider it one of my top 10 places to live along with the Brockville area,
North Bay (62) and Petawawa ((81) / Pembroke (124).
More about me:
My Ottawa Citizen blogs:
Tech Connection:
http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/tag/tech-connection
HoeDown Blogger: http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/tag/hoedown-blogger
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