Of course, so did everyone else:
Overall, Vienna retains the top spot as the city with the world’s best quality of living, said the Mercer Quality of Living survey released on Tuesday. Baghdad was last out of 221 cities. …
Consulting firm Mercer looked at 39 factors such as a city’s political and social environment and its economic and socio-cultural environment, areas in which Canada scored quite well.
UPDATE: Vancouver is also Canada’s Smartest City, fourth in North America. (This is like awards season. Mercer is an Oscar. Smartest City is a Golden Globes.)
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Something new in the Mercer survey:
This year, Mercer included a separate ranking for city infrastructure, including access to clean water, electricity, telephone, mail, public transport, traffic, and access to an international airport. Singapore ranks highest for infrastructure, with Haiti’s Port-au-Prince lowest.
Here’s our ranking – at ninth:
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(Complete list here.) In some ways, the infrastructure list is more useful than the overall quality ranking, which we tend to discount because of our weather and wealth.
Infrastructure funding may also be Canadian cities’ greatest challenge.
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At last week’s Regional Finance Conference, Mike Buda of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities had some interesting observations:
- The low point of infrastructure investment by the federal government was in the late 90s in age of deficit fighting. But over time, while senior-government grants have improved, so has municipal responsibility for infrastructure. In the 1950s: less than a quarter. Today: now 63 percent.
- And with that has come downloading – the transfer of responsibilities from senior to lower – with new responsibilities in the areas of immigration, climate change and housing. And increasing costs faster than inflation,
- However, municipal revenues have not dipped in way provincial and federal revenues have. As a result, municipalities have turned operating deficits into infrastructure deficits, by deferring long-term costs in order to balance budgets (by law) in the short term.
- The good news, however, is that the federal government is already in consultation with the FCM over the next ‘Canada Builds’ program, under whatever name it may emerge, rather than waiting until it expires and rushing around to fund whatever ‘shovel-ready’ projects can be compiled.
- Ideally, it will come with 15 to 20 years of predictable funding.
- Discussion points: the protection of existing gas tax revenue, a core economic infrastructure fund and an expansion of the private-sector role.
Mike also tweeted an important fact check: The actual percentage of tax revenues that municipalities receive is not, strictly speaking, 8 percent. (Or as every municipal politician has learned to say: “Eight cents out of every dollar.”) It’s actually 11 percent when grants and transfers are accounted for – still a very small percent of the tax pie. But it’s actually impressive for what we get.
Atlanta, GA #13 and top in US?!?!?
PHBOKC – thanks for pointing out the weakness of this survey, if Atlanta – the poster child for US sprawl, along with Houston and Phoenix – ranks highest in the US. Also, I imagine weather didn’t seem to play a role in these rankings, but I admit I didn’t check the criteria.
On the FCM point, I’ve been simplistically haranguing them and their supporters for holding out the begging bowl, while the vast majority of FCM member municipalities have sprawl-supporting policies – 20m “local” streets, incomplete stroads, parking minima, unnecessary setbacks and height restrictions, zoning by use and taxing by beauty and compact efficiency.
I’ve clearly drunk the Strong Towns koolaid and would love to be corrected by your more learned readers.
Here’s a little attack on Squamish, for example: http://stroadtoboulevard.tumblr.com/post/36888649463/stroads-in-beautiful-squamish-bc-so-much
And my naive formula for rebalancing revenue and expenditure is here http://stroadtoboulevard.tumblr.com/post/36472001260/small-business-saturday but of course it revolves around regulating development and investing in infrastructure to ensure a great public space outcome, as opposed to an LOS, strict use-segregation or ribbon-cutting ceremony.
One thing I don’t know enough about is what’s been “downloaded” onto municipalities: you name immigration, climate change and housing. Is there a list of the particular policies somewhere?
Neil21: Some financial answers.
http://www.cfib-fcei.ca/english/article/4673-bc-municipal-spending-improving-but-still-out-of-control.html
Locally, unionized employees will receive wage increases alone (excluding other gains in pensions, health benefits, etc.), during 2007 to 2014 (including the bulk of the recessionary years), of about 25%. Well beyond inflation, and while many tax-paying households sufferred income losses. Meanwhile, the BC Gov’t fairly and appropriately maintained several of those years at net zero increases.
BC-wide, almost 80% of municipal revenues are from taxes and sales (fees, fines, permits, etc). While the growth of those two categories has grown at an obscene rate (astronomically beyond inflation), the growth of the takings of ‘developer contributions’ (new construction of homes, shops and workplaces), has increased 800% in the last 10 years. Revenues from other governments have increased almost 275%.
There is plenty of money for infrastructure maintenance and reasonably-priced ‘sales.’ And affordability. But it is being syphoned into the life-long lifestyles of municipal employees. Anyone who buys and owns property in a municipality is not only over paying for those lifestyles through their taxes, but will for decades through their mortgages.
To where can this lead?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-01/police-chief-s-204-000-pension-shows-how-cities-crashed.html
Neil21: Re: Squamish
To be fair, the land use patterns in older areas of that muni are still that way because very little redevelopment has (and will) take place. It is a small town with very low density. Many of the subdivision plans downtown date back to the 1950s, some earlier. If you look closely, some sidewalks have been widened. That streetscape you’ve shown is similar to many parts of downtown Vancouver only a few decades ago.