Thompson has made something of a comeback in the widely-watched MoneySense magazine fifth annual list of "Canada's Best Place to Live," finishing 58th out of 179 cities and towns this year.
MoneySense rankings are based on hard data factors that contribute to a city's "livability," as the magazine describes it.
The indicators range from climate and ease of travel to affordable housing and population growth. Every city or town in the country with a population of 10,000 or more is ranked, and this year, for the first time, MoneySense separated out suburbs of at least 50,000 people, which added 25 new cities to the survey, up from 154 last year when Thompson finished 88th.
To come up with the rankings, MoneySense uses a methodology where they gather information on Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomeration areas that have a population of 10,000 or greater (and for which the required data is available). Then they broke up the CMAs of Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Québec City, Hamilton, Oshawa and Kitchener into their component cities of 50,000 or more in population.
The sources includes Statistics Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Canadian Real Estate Association's Multiple Listing Service (MLS), Canadian Medical Association and FP Markets/MapInfo-Canadian Demographics, published by CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.
Each community is then ranked by categories. The categories were scored out of a given number of points. The higher the potential points, the more weight that category had in the final ranking.
Thompson's best-ever overall showing in the survey was in 2008 when it ranked 19th overall. In 2007, Thompson topped the household discretionary income category and finished third in it in 2008. Last year it plunged to 54th place for discretionary income and this year continued that descent to 94th place for household discretionary income.
Household discretionary income is usually defined as the amount of income available for spending after the essentials, such as food, clothing, and shelter, have been taken care of. Thompson's percentage of household discretionary income dropped to 26.82 per cent this year from 27.75 per cent last year and 28.3 per cent in 2008.
While Thompson's household discretionary income ranking dropped sharply again this year, average income actually continued its rise from $88,151 in last year's survey to $93,505 this year. In 2008, it was $77,353.
Best city in Canada for household discretionary income this year was Whitehorse, where 31.10 per cent of income was classified as discretionary. Whitehorse also topped the "new cars" category at 83.33 pr cent, but household income was only $86,096 and it finished in 33rd place overall.
Best place to live overall, according to MoneySense, is Ottawa, which knocked Victoria out of first place. Ottawa had finished first in 2008 and 2007.
Housing prices dropped sharply in Thompson from an average of $243,390 last year to $206,454 this year, approving our affordability to 57th place from 95th last year. The average house price here was $152,179 in 2008 and $97,333 in 2007.
Mayor Tim Johnston, in an interview May 7, said there would be value to the MoneySense annual rankings if for no other reason than, "I constantly get challenged by people who make it seem like Thompson is the worst place in the world to live."
One of the things the annual survey does, Johnston says, is it puts things into perspective because "we're able to compare ourselves with other municipalities."
Noting Thompson always finishes dead last - no matter how many communities are included in the survey - in the weather category because of the number of below freezing days (averaging 240 out of 365 days a year), Johnston says, "I think we we'll always be challenged, especially on the weather one," but he also noted from a different perspective Thompson cashes in on its cold weather for winter resting and benefits perhaps in other economic categories from it.
Johnston says he expects Thompson will finish in a better position in its "culture" rating in the years ahead, once the magazine recognizes University College of the North (UCN) as a university as well as a college.
MoneySense consistently rates UCN, while it may have university degree-granting powers, as little more than a glorified trade school and refuses to categorize it as a university. Johnston says he hopes that will change when the new Thompson campus opens in 2013.
At the moment, Thompson has the fourth-worst culture rating in the country, getting by only Fort St. John, B.C., and Leamington and Kenora, Ont.
In terms of housing prices, Johnston says the improvement in affordability is on balance good for the community.
"It's a big drop, but never forget, two years ago they went through the roof."
