National family-friendly survey ranks city in bottom five

Although Thunder Bay passed as a family friendly city, the low grade is a cause for concern, say city councillors.

The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada ranked Thunder Bay as one of the least family friendly cities in the country. The report, released on Thursday, ranked cities on community feel, education choice, cost of living, economic strength and family independence.

Although no city received a failing grade, Thunder Bay received an overall grade of C along with Saguenay, Que., Trois-Rivières, Que., Saint John, N.B. and St. John’s, N.L.

The report said the city did poorly because of low population growth, a poor economic situation and very high levels of government dependency.

Counc. Rebecca Johnson said she was disappointed with the survey results and took it as an indicator that they needed to do something to resolve the issues in the city.

"I think we have to say that maybe we do have an issue," Johnson said. "We have done some good things but there is still a lot to do."

Of the issues that needed be resolved, she said making Thunder Bay more age friendly and more welcoming to visitors would be a step in the right direction.

Thunder Bay received three As, 12 Bs and seven Cs. Coun. Andrew Foulds said he had trouble taking in the data and wondered why the city received such a low grade when the city had more As and Bs combined.

Foulds said the survey took most of its data from a 2006 census and missed recent developments in the city.

"That data was four years ago," Foulds said. "I’m not sure this report captures everything this city has done recently in terms of diversification, and certainly not the announcements by Bombardier this year."

While all studies are valuable for different reasons, he said it is important to take a critical view of them.

The top five ranked cities included Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Kitchener and Guelph.