3 replies to this topic

[amor de cosmos]

The CIBCWM Metropolitan Economic Activity Index
Using 9 key macroeconomic variables, we have developed a metropolitan index of economic activity, which is structured in a way that approximates the change in each city's level of economic activity. With data going back for almost 10 years, our index enables us not only to monitor the current performance of a given city but also to track its cyclical behavior against the national economy and other census metropolitan areas (CMAs). The focus is on the 25 largest CMAs in Canada.

http://research.cibc...o/ArEcoMEA.html
(I only counted 24)

The CIBCWM Metropolitan Economic Activity Index is a measure designed to rank the pace of economic momentum in Canada’s largest Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs). Nine key macroeconomic variables and drivers of economic growth comprise the index, which enables us to approximate economic growth in each of these cities and provides a consistent base for comparison with other cities and/or with the average performance of all other CMAs.

For the first time on record the city of Edmonton tops our city ranking in term of economic momentum. Strong population growth (second only to Calgary), impressive employment gains, low unemployment rate, and well below average corporate and personal insolvency rates combined to boost Edmonton to its current ranking. In fact, if it were not for some recent softness in the pace of the improvement in the housing market, the gap between Edmonton and Calgary would have been even larger. Note that the recent slowing in housing market activity in the city reflects deteriorating affordability as well as a natural slowing from an unsustainable pace of improvement observed earlier in the year.

The macro variables used to develop the index are:
(1) Population growth (Victoria is 6th)
(2) Employment growth (5th)
(3) Unemployment rate (5th)
(4) Full-time share in total employment (2nd)
(5) Personal bankruptcy rate (5th)
(6) Business bankruptcy rate (1st! )
(7) Housing starts (22nd )
(8) MLS Housing resales (5th)
(9) Non-Residential building permits (8th)

the list goes like this:
1. Edmonton
2. Calgary
3. Saskatoon
4. Montreal
5. Toronto
6. Vancouver
7. Sherbrooke
8. VICTORIA
9. Trois-Riviere
10. Regina
11. St John
12. Quebec
13. Halifax
14. Kitchener
15. Sudbury
16. London
17. Hamilton
18. St John's
19. Ottawa/Gatineau
20. Kingston
21. Thunder Bay
22. St Catharines
23. Saguenay
24. Windsor

http://research.cibc...tro_monitor.pdf

Victoria data:
http://research.cibc...ma-victoria.pdf

More housing pls. Looks like Victoria does pretty well overall but we could have made the top 5 if we'd upped our housing starts compared with 2006.

[Ms. B. Havin]

Great info -- thanks for the links!

[amor de cosmos]

Victoria is an above-average city -- Conference Board of Canada

Victoria gets an 'A' for attractive
CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Greater Victoria is among Canada's most economically dynamic and attractive regions, says a study from the Conference Board of Canada being released today.

It is the smallest region in a top-tier cluster of six that get an A grade for being a "magnet city" with attractive qualities.

The top six, in order, are: Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Victoria and Ottawa-Gatineau.

Negatives for Victoria include its lack of affordable housing and a relatively high rate of drug-related crime.

But it wins points for:
* leading the country in general physicians per capita (152 per 100,000)
* long life expectancy
* low incidence of obesity
* having a mild climate
* employment growth
* a vibrant cultural life
* good voter turnout
* residential building permit growth
* household access to recycling
* high portion of population with post-graduate and medical degrees

Being an attractive place to live and work is important to the health of a city, says the Conference Board study. "Cities without the ability to act as magnets and attract new people will struggle to stay prosperous in the decades ahead," it says.

Grades were awarded based on seven areas: economy, innovation, environment, education, health, society and housing.

"Labour shortages are already beginning to affect some Canadian cities," said Mario Lefebvre, director of the board's new Centre for Municipal Studies. "Attracting highly skilled workers and the business investment they encourage is crucial to Canada's economic competitiveness in the decades ahead."

It's becoming more a case of businesses going where the people with skills and talent want to live than people going to where the jobs are, he said. "In other words, places attractive to people will also attract business investment," he said.

*snip*

http://www.canada.co...94f711b&k=40310

here's the abstract (costs money to get the whole report):
"Executive Summary—City Magnets: Benchmarking the Attractiveness of Canada’s CMAs gives an overview of how cities rank on the features that make Canadian cities attractive to skilled workers and mobile populations. A looming demographic crunch threatens to generate labour shortages in Canadian cities, so cities without the ability to act as magnets and attract new people will struggle to stay prosperous in the decades ahead. The full study uses report-card rankings of outcomes, or proxies for outcomes, to show how attractive our cities are to people. The performance of 27 census metropolitan areas is compared across seven different domains: Economy, Health, Society, Housing, Environment, Innovation, and Education. A second, less detailed analysis, also ranks Canada’s 27 CMAs against 27 U.S. cities."

[G-Man]

Anybody see this story:

Victoria losing some competitive advantage
But according to a KPMG study, it still tops the Pacific Northwest
Andrew A. Duffy, Times Colonist
Published: Friday, March 28, 2008

A weak U.S. dollar may have eroded some of Victoria's competitive business advantage, but it still remains one of the most competitive business environments in the Pacific Northwest, according to KPMG's 2008 Competitive Alternatives study.

http://www.canada.co...e6-b8791b85ec20