The Globe and Mail’s ranking for Greater Sudbury is a 130-point improvement on the city’s 2023 position, which Mayor Paul Lefebvre said is a good sign they’re on the right path
The Globe and Mail has ranked Greater Sudbury as No. 134 on a list of 454 Canadian cities, bringing it a few percentage points from reaching the top-quarter tier.
The Nickel City’s ranking has been on an upward swing in recent years.
In 2023, Greater Sudbury was No. 264 of 439, putting it in the lesser half of Canadian cities.
The latest third-edition ranking has seen Greater Sudbury record a significant population increase since the 2023 ranking (169,927 to 183,315, though last year’s Statistics Canada estimate puts it closer to 192,000) and the unemployment rate dropped to six per cent from 7.3 per cent in 2023.
Meanwhile, the percentage of households that spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing has remained unchanged at 17 per cent while the average monthly rent cost jumped from $1,263 to $1,577.
The percentage of people who maintained a “Strong sense of belonging to local community” increased two percentage points to 72 per cent, and the percentage of Greater Sudburians who had a regular health-care provider increased from 87 per cent to 90 per cent.
Although the Globe and Mail uses their own metrics, Mayor Paul Lefebvre told Sudbury.com that, to him, livability is “about creating a place where there are jobs, where people want to invest; that’s first and foremost, and also, people want to be proud of their city.”
He also credits Greater Sudbury’s access to nature and calmer, rural lifestyle compared to such traffic-heavy places as the Greater Toronto Area, as aiding in its livability.
The ranking says good things about education, health care and community, Lefebvre said.
“When you look at the stats, our numbers are pretty good,” he said. “People have a strong sense of belonging in a livable city.”
“People who want to have that night lifestyle of restaurants and events to go to, we have plenty of that as well,” he said. “We offer a lot of the big city things … but in a city where driving is not an issue and you don’t have massive populations.”
Although he said affordability remains an ongoing concern, and locals might scoff at the notion of conditions being relatively affordable in Greater Sudbury in light of recent years’ inflation, he said one needs only look at Toronto to see how expensive things have become elsewhere.
Although Toronto ranks No. 44 on the list, their average monthly rent is $2,051. While 17 per cent of Greater Sudburians spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing, 32 per cent of Torontonians exceed this key affordability threshold.
Where Toronto has an edge over Greater Sudbury is on such things as walkability (111 per cent greater than the Canadian average versus Greater Sudbury’s -52 per cent) and warmer climate and diversity (Greater Sudbury is 61 per cent lower than the national average and Toronto is 87 per cent higher).
In addition to crediting city council for making various infrastructure investments in recent years and the city in general for exceeding provincial housing targets, Lefebvre said he also recognizes there’s a lot more work to be done.
Advocacy to senior levels of government for funding toward various forms of deeply affordable housing is ongoing, and the city’s chipping away at its long-term plan to eliminate various infrastructure spending shortcomings.
“We know there’s a path to helping the most vulnerable and just creating more housing as well,” he said. “The affordability factor is a key one, and I see that continuing.”
Meanwhile, Lefebvre’s forecast is positive, with several multi-million-dollar projects underway and anticipated to open in the coming few years, including a downtown event centre, Cultural Hub at Tom Davies Square library/art gallery and Pioneer Manor long-term care home bed renewal effort, all of which he said will improve livability.
There are currently nine operating mines in Greater Sudbury, which Lefebvre said he anticipates to see grow to 15 by 2030.
“That means jobs,” he said. “Good quality, good-paying jobs.”
When it comes to jumping even higher in the rankings next time around, Lefebvre said, “We have all the tools to make it happen.”
Greater Sudbury’s No. 134 tops the list among Northern Ontario cities, followed by Thunder Bay (177), Timmins (193), North Bay (247) and Sault Ste. Marie (299).
In the overall list of 454 Canadian cities, North Vancouver is No. 1 and two Ontario cities crack the top 10, including Ottawa at No. 4 and Oakville at No. 6.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.