Brooks City Hall. (Supplied by City of Brooks)

By David Opinko

Brooks ranked Canada’s 9th best community, Lethbridge 133

Apr 13, 2021 | 11:19 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Macleans has released its ranking of Canada’s Best Communities for 2021.

They gathered data on 415 communities across the country including affordability, population growth, taxes, crime, weather, health, amenities, community, and internet access.

Researchers then compared each community based on the categories they felt would be the most important to the average person. Since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit last spring, Macleans decided to put a greater emphasis on people living remote work lifestyles.

Doing this meant putting more weight on factors like internet access, and since more people are working from home, they said qualities like the local economy were not as key to this ranking.

Based on all of this, Halifax, Nova Scotia was declared the best community in Canada.

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The first Albertan city to appear is Edmonton in fifth place with internet access, community, and health being its top three features.

Brooks was the only community in Southern Alberta to crack the top 10.

According to Macleans, the top three features for ninth-placed Brooks are internet access, taxes, and population growth.

Medicine Hat placed 21st with internet access, taxes, and community being the primary reasons.

The 31st spot went to Calgary thanks to internet access, amenities, and community being its top features.

All the way down at 133 was Lethbridge.

Macleans said the biggest benefits to living in Lethbridge are internet access, amenities, and taxes.

Properties in the city go for an average of $292,556 with property taxes at 1.8 per cent.

One of the main things holding Lethbridge back is crime. Over five years, Lethbridge has an average Crime Severity Index of 139, nearly double the national average of 73.

LNN reported back in October that the city had the country’s highest Crime Severity Index. As noted in the article below, LPS told us that having a high CSI and being a “dangerous city” are two different things.

READ MORE: Lethbridge has Canada’s highest Crime Severity Index

You can check out the full ranking of Canada’s Best Communities here. There are sliders where you can give more or less importance to the different factors.

Edmonton, ranked 5th. (Supplied by Macleans)

Brooks, ranked 9th. (Supplied by Macleans)

Medicine Hat, ranked 21st. (Supplied by Macleans)

Calgary, ranked 31st. (Supplied by Macleans)

Lethbridge, ranked 133rd. (Supplied by Macleans)

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