Being included on national top places list positive for the community

TRURO – Being included on a list of best places to live in Canada, despite a low ranking, is a positive for the Town of Truro, says Truro & Colchester Chamber of Commerce president Andrew Lake.

MoneySense magazine recently released its Best Places to Live 2016 list where the Town of Truro was ranked in second last place, in position 218, just above New Glasgow.

The ranking certainly is not a view shared by residents of Truro, Lake says.

“The community is the envy of many, home to a diverse economy, several new schools, hospital, library and civic centre and is rich with tourism, culture and community assets,” says the president. “The businesses and citizens of the area share the passion for the region, investing human and financial capital to contribute to its appeal and offerings.”

In its methodology, MoneySense indicates it can’t “gauge many of the elements people enjoy in their cities, the nearness of family, the friendliness of neighbours or even great sunsets.” Its numbers determining rank were gained from Census Metropolitan Areas (CMA), Census Agglomeration (CA) and Census Subdivisions, (CSD) as defined by Statistics Canada. Demographic data was supplied by Environics Analytics.

Category weightings included demographics, wealth/income, housing affordability, weather, commute and other topics such as includes crime, taxation, number of luxury vehicles amenities and culture.

There are more than 1,100 cities and towns across Canada, so to be included on the list of the top 219 is positive says Lake, however, some numbers used to determine the results do not accurately reflect the town.

Truro’s population is about 12,000, while according to the data shared by MoneySense its population is listed as 46,062. It is unclear if that number reflects populations in surrounding rural areas, which would have an impact on the rankings such as the number of people able to travel to work by walking, biking or public transit.

The town did score in the top 25 percentile of all the communities ranked for having affordable housing and low-priced-homes.

Lake says there are many benefits and opportunities for residents and businesses in this region and this report doesn’t clearly reflect that. A demonstration of the community’s pride is being offered on June 17 in the form of a Partnership for Economic Prosperity or PEP Rally in support of economic development. The rally, held from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Marigold Cultural Centre in downtown Truro, is designed to celebrate the entrepreneurship and community spirit of local business and community leaders says Lake.

“The community is passionate about positioning Truro and Colchester for future success,” he said.

“The community has a history of demonstrating its pride, rallying behind a number of community building initiatives including being the inaugural recipient of Hockeyville and most recently the only Atlantic Canadian finalist in the Coors Banquet One Horse Town contest.”

For more information about the Chamber or the PEP Rally, contact the Chamber office at 902-895-6328 or email [email protected].