Those of us who always said that North Grenville was a great place to live now have the statistics to prove it. The MoneySense survey for Canada’s Best Places to Live 2018 has ranked North Grenville at number 69 out of the 415 communities across Canada covered by the survey. On a provincial level, the municipality ranked at number 32 out of 150 communities in Ontario.
Given the large percentage of the population that can be classed as seniors, the statistics are equally good: North Grenville is number 40 as the Best Place to Retire, 17 places above Brockville.
MoneySense is a Canadian online personal finance and lifestyle magazine published by Rogers Publishing Limited, and the survey gathered data on 415 cities across the country and ranked how they measure up in 10 categories: Wealth and economy, affordability, population growth, taxes, commute, crime, weather, access to health care, amenities and culture. Environics Analytics worked with MoneySense in compiling the survey results.
The reign of Ottawa as the Number One place to live in Canada, which it held for the past few years, was ended by, of all places, Oakville, Ontario. Toronto came 16th. But, for people in this part of the country, the most interesting statistic may be that Russell Township, just to the east of North Grenville, came third overall in Canada as the best place to live. The survey report gave some reasons for this:
“Russell Township, Ont. — a small town outside Ottawa — came in third overall. If you’re looking for a place to live with real estate that won’t break the bank, Russell Township is also no. 1 in our new sub-ranking of the best places to live with housing prices under $500,000. Russell Township is among the top 10 most affordable cities in the country and is also among the top 25 per cent of cities with the lowest crime.”
Some of the figures regarding North Grenville may be interesting to local residents. The population of the municipality is given as 16,858, with an average household income of $104,660. The unemployment rate for the region is 5.1%, and the average value of “Primary Real estate”, meaning the family home, is $393,970. Property tax, something which is a source of real irritation for taxpayers here, is calculated as 3% of the average income, leading to an average annual property tax bill of $3,376.
North Grenville has six Doctor’s offices, and we experience about 2,663 crimes per 100,000 population. That sounds like a lot until you remember that the actual population is only 16,858. That should work out at around 460 crimes per year. Strangely enough, for a community that seems to have a large number of artists of all kinds, only 1.3% of the population are actually employed in the arts and recreation sector.
All in all, North Grenville out of this survey looking like a good place to live. Coming 69 out of 415 communities across Canada is a remarkably good result for a lower tier municipality, and something that can be used to attract more business, more jobs and more residents to this amazing place.
