A list of “Canada’s Best Places to Live”… is out and Owen Sound ranks 115th.
That is down from 56th a year ago.
The ranking is in “Moneysense Magazine” and reporter Phil Froats says the city slipped mainly because some criteria were changed.
Last time, the ranking gave positive numbers to any community with 900 mms of rain a year, but that was lowered to 700 mms this year.
Owen Sound had 11 hundred mms.. so it received a poor number.
Other factors were the number of violent crimes, the cost of housing, public transit, family income etc.
Froats says the point spread between cities is very tight so any move in one category can have a big impact on the overall ranking.
Ottawa was ranked number 1 by the magazine, Stratford 27th, Collingwood was 61st and Barrie was 87th.
Owen Sound Mayor Ruth Lovell thinks some of the criteria is skewed and some of the facts are wrong.
The article shows Owen Sound with an average home cost of 237 thousand dollars but Lovell says it was about 183 thousand last year. With a wrong number she says we get a poor ranking we don’t deserve.
Lovell also says the precipitation ranking is misleading because we get a lot of snow which is great for winter sports.
