News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

The City of Williams Lake is dismayed and disappointed with a recent article by MoneySense Magazine which ranked Williams Lake, B.C. as the second worse place to live in Canada in 2010. According to their web site, MoneySense’s Best Places to Live is based on data compiled from 179 Canadian cities and towns with populations over 10,000 people. They rated cities based on climate, prosperity, access to healthcare, home affordability, crime rates and lifestyle with subcategories in each area.

Williams Lake’s ranking on this list has greatly upset our community. Williams Lake is an amazing place to live, as are the other communities that ranked low on this list. People choose to live in Williams Lake for many reasons and it is an insult to our proud residents to broadly publish such a negative, counterproductive piece of information.

To publish a list of the Top 10 or Top 20 best places to live in Canada is completely appropriate and duly credits those Cities that excel at whatever criteria is used to establish such a ranking. However, to publish a list that includes the worst places to live only exacerbates the challenges and issues that these communities already face and that contribute to their poor ranking in the first place.   Placing such a dubious distinction on communities that are working hard to enhance their economy and/or improve their quality of life essentially ‘pulls the rug out from under them’ and erodes any progress that they are making. Some respect and consideration should be shown to communities that are doing their best to deal with challenges and circumstances that are often out of their control, beyond their capacity or outside their mandate. To penalize these communities in this manner is simply irresponsible. 

Cariboo South MLA Donna Barnett shared her frustration with this article in a recent e-mail to the City of Williams Lake. “While I am hurt by this magazine’s unfair assertions of our beloved Williams Lake, I am also very outraged at our community being portrayed in such an inaccurate, blatantly misleading manner. This is the worst kind of irresponsible, so-called journalism that completely disregards all the wonderful and real assets of Williams Lake’s naturally beauty and outdoor recreation. We are a community with a can-do spirit and diversity of people and talents, and that should never be disregarded. If somebody wants to write about us, they should at least have the courtesy of getting to know us first.”

The City of Williams Lake challenges the Editor of MoneySense Magazine to visit Williams Lake and explain to the residents and businesses the purpose and logic of publishing the Best (and Worst) Places to Live in Canada 2010. And while they are in Williams Lake, they should talk with our residents as to why they choose to live, work and play in Williams Lake and experience for themselves the natural beauty, warm hospitality, enthusiasm and vibrancy of our community. 

Yours truly,
Mayor Kerry Cook
Williams Lake, BC

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