Following up on its list of the 10 best places to live in Canada, MoneySense magazine has released a list of the 10 worst – and six of them are in British Columbia.
Williams Lake was ranked second, followed closely by Quesnel, Port Alberni, Campbell River, Prince Rupert and Terrace, which took the number 10 spot.
The towns and cities were at the bottom of the 179 evaluated for the magazine's best places list. MoneySense used data gathered from a wide array of sources including Statistics Canada, Environment Canada and real estate boards to compare criteria such as cultural offerings, schools, year-round weather, employment and crime.
"We care about: how much money can you make? What kind of job can you get? How much does it cost to buy a house? How many doctors are available? What kind of infrastructure is there? How much pollution is there?" editor Duncan Hood told CTV's Canada AM last week.
The worst are largely situated along Canada's coasts, something the magazine attributes in part to poor weather.
Ottawa was ranked the best place to live in Canada for the third time in four years. Victoria ranked first last year, but was determined too expensive for the 2010 list, bumping it down to eighth.
Vancouver fell off the top 10, as it considered the most unaffordable city in Canada. The average home in the picturesque city tops $762,000 -- almost 10 times the average income.
The entire list of the 10 worst places to live, according to MoneySense:
- Terrace, B.C.
- La Tuque, Que.
- Summerside, P.E.I.
- Prince Rupert, B.C.
- Campbell River, B.C.
- Port Alberni, B.C.
- Quesnel, B.C.
- New Glasgow, N.S.
- Williams Lake, B.C.
- Bay Roberts, Nfld.
