The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Thompson plunged to 103rd place this year from 43rd last year in the annual MoneySense magazine survey, which ranks cities across Canada from best to worst places to live _ both overall and in specific categories. It is Thompson's worst-ever overall showing in the survey. The northern city's previous lowest ranking was 88th place overall in 2009, after the city's highest ranking of 19th place overall a year earlier in 2008. Thompson ended up in 25th place in 2007. The Best Places to Live survey continues to grow in terms of number of cities compared. There were 123 cities in 2007, 154 in 2008 and 2009, 179 in 2010 and 180 in 2011. This year saw 190 cities ranked. To come up with the rankings, MoneySense gathers information on census metropolitan areas and census agglomeration areas that had a population of 10,000 or more _ and for which the data they sought was available. The sources include Statistics Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Canadian Real Estate Association's Multiple Listing Service, Canadian Medical Association and FP Markets/MapInfo-Canadian Demographics, published by Postmedia Network. Culture An area of marginal improvement for Thompson this year was in the category of culture. The city finished 185th out of 190. Thompson finished 177th in the category last year, topping only Fort St. John, B.C., and Leamington and Kenora, Ont. There was no real surprise on the crime front, however. Thompson improved marginally after having the worst crime problem of the 180 Canadian cities ranked last year. This year the city improved to second-worst at 189 out of 190, topped only by North Battleford, Sask. Thompson was the second-worst city surveyed in both the 'violent crime rank' and 'crime severity rank' categories. Thompson also tanked in another closely-watched category _ household discretionary, dropping from 79th place last year to 139th this year. Household discretionary income is usually defined as the amount of income available for spending after the essentials, such as food, clothing and shelter. In terms of household income, Thompson dropped from 26th place last year to 33rd spot this year, but in actual dollars the city increased slightly from $101,622 last year to $103,175 in 2012 _ an increase of about 1.53 per cent. Thompson's average household income in 2010 was $93,505, compared to $88,151 in 2009 and $77,353 in 2008. Overall, MoneySense ranked Thompson 35th for affordable housing out of 190, a slight drop from 31st place last year. The average house price in Thompson tumbled sharply from an average of $243,390 in 2009 to $206,454 in 2010. Since then, there has been a modest recovery for the last two years in 2011 and 2012, with average house prices moving back up to $210,250 last year and $216,900 in 2012. The best place to live overall, according to the survey, is Ottawa and the adjacent Gatineau region of Quebec. Ottawa knocked Victoria out of first place in 2010 and the nation's capital region also finished first in 2008 and 2007. _ John Barker, Thompson Citizen
