Halifax rates poorly on best-run cities list

[Phalanx]

This was in today's paper. Still looking over the actual Maclean's article (see link at the bottom) myself. Anyway, probably not a surprise to some.

Halifax rates poorly on best-run cities list

By BILL POWER Business Reporter
Fri. Jul 17 - 4:46 AM

Halifax ranks 24th among 31 cities in the Maclean’s review.

Halifax ranks among the low performers in Maclean’s magazine’s review of Canada’s best-run cities.

The largest city in Atlantic Canada comes in at No. 24 among 31 cities that the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies scrutinized for the new issue of Maclean’s, which hits newsstands today.

"Yes, that is pretty low on the list," was all a Maclean’s representative would say Thursday about Halifax’s placing.

The best-run city in Canada is Burnaby, B.C., according to the magazine. It is described as a smooth-running municipal machine that others should emulate.

The only Atlantic Canadian city to make the top 10 is Saint John, N.B.

Halifax Regional Municipality, which can lay claim to the most awkward moniker on the list, is just ahead of other poorly ranked cities such as Fredericton, Charlottetown, Victoria, Laval, Que., and Barrie, Windsor and Kingston in Ontario.

The magazine describes Charlottetown, ranked 28th, as a city that "may be resting too much on its homey reputation and heritage industry."

St. John’s, N.L., and Thunder Bay, Ont., are among the cities that rank higher than Halifax.

AIMS, a Halifax think-tank, considered population, police and fire services, public transit, road conditions, garbage collection, socio-economic status and taxation levels in conducting the first review of its type for Maclean’s.

( bpower@herald.ca)

Herald story page

Maclean's article

[someone123]

I guess the list is working as intended.

It's true that even the name "Halifax Regional Municipality" is telling as far as management of the city goes - it was the awkward, lowest-common-denominator type solution.

[Dmajackson]

Well IMO until Kelly gets the boot and we get a funcitonal system working we'll be low on the list.

[phrenic]

Halifax rates poorly on best-run cities list

Well duh.

[hfx_chris]

What a shocker.

[Haliguy]

As much as I am not pleased the way this city has been run I'm not sure about this survey. There seems to be alot of cities missing on the list. You could say they are only looking at the larger cities but then they have Charlottetown and Fredicton on the list. If cities this size are included then there should be 100 or so cities on this list

[hfx_chris]

Charlottetown and Fredericton have to be included, they're provincial capitals.

[spaustin]

Halifax definitely has issues, but any survey that puts Toronto at #10 with their bloated bureaucracy, political difficulties and huge infrastructure deficit isn't probably that useful... either that or things are much worse across the country than I think they are!