Mountain View County鈥檚 reeve isn鈥檛 putting much stock in the county鈥檚 inclusion on a Canadian magazine鈥檚 list of best communities in Canada to live.
Maclean鈥檚 Best Communities in Canada 2019 ranks 415 Statistics Canada census subdivisions across the country based on 10 categories.
While Burlington, Ont. took the magzine鈥檚 top placing, Mountain View County was in 415th spot.
鈥淲hat would you use the list for? If you want to live in Mountain View County that is quite a bit different than if you wanted to live in Toronto. If I were looking for a place to move to, what I would base that decision on would not have much to do with a listing from Maclean's,鈥� said Bruce Beattie.
The magazine did not disclose how the 415 census subdivisions were chosen for inclusion in the ranking and a Gazette request for information went unanswered as of press time. It was noted that 46 Alberta communities were included.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 extremely difficult to compare a rural municipality like Mountain View County to a centre like Toronto. And I think (the listing) is very urban based. And I think if you look at the list you鈥檒l see that the vast majority are urban centres and that鈥檚 to be expected if you look at the criteria that they used to rate the communities,鈥� said Beattie.
The publication鈥檚 staff ranked how each community did compared to the other chosen communities in the following categories: wealth and economy (20 points), affordability (20 points), population growth (six points), taxes (seven points), commute (10 points), crime (seven points), weather (10 points), access to health care (11 points), amenities (0.5 points) and culture (five points).
鈥淲e make categories we think are most important to average people worth the most points,鈥� magazine staff wrote in describing some of the methodology behind the ranking.
Beattie says the county鈥檚 ranking highlights the differences between rural and urban living.
鈥淲hen I looked at some of the criteria I noted we鈥檙e downgraded because we don鈥檛 have any public transit -- which you wouldn鈥檛 expect to find in a rural municipality. And I think they listed the number of doctors as zero. But you know we have lots of doctors in the towns within Mountain View County,鈥� he said.
The county partners with the urban municipalities that are geographically located within its boundaries to provide many services to its own residents including fire protection and recreation opportunities that are based in those urban centres. Beattie noted that the county also provides funding to groups within those urban centres for medical-related initiatives through a dedicated fund.
Other information listed for Mountain View County included residents鈥� median household income, the economic region unemployment rate, the average value of primary real estate and the average annual property tax bill.
Based on information provided by Environics Analytics, the publication鈥檚 staff also ranked communities on the percentage of residents who walk, bike and take transit to work.
According to the analysis, one per cent of the county鈥檚 13,465 residents walk to work, not one person bikes to work, and 0.4 per cent take transit to work.
Beattie said the national recognition of being on the list "is probably a good thing" and laughingly said 鈥淚 think someone said any time you鈥檙e in the news it鈥檚 a good thing.鈥�
He called the data compilation an interesting exercise 鈥渂ut I鈥檓 not sure how valuable an exercise it is and how worthwhile it is to make any kind of decisions around.鈥�
He says he doesn鈥檛 regret moving to the Bergen area of Mountain View County from southern Ontario.
鈥淚 grew up just outside of Hamilton so I鈥檓 pretty familiar with Toronto, Hamilton and Guelph. Yes, Guelph is a very beautiful city, great place, but in comparison to Bergen? I鈥檒l take Bergen. I鈥檝e been here for 50 years now and I鈥檓 not leaving.鈥�
