NORTHUMBERLAND -- Cobourg is counted among the best places in Canada
to
spend your retirement years.
According to Money Sense magazine's 'Canada's Best Places to Live
2009'
list, Cobourg ranks eighth across the country behind larger centres
such as
Victoria, Ottawa, Vancouver, Kingston and London as best-bet
communities to
live after the days of work are over.
The scoring system, "designed to reflect the realities of old age,"
was
based on access to health care, pleasant climate, low taxes, easy
walking
and affordable homes. On the overall list, Cobourg ranked 22nd of the
154
communities (with a population over 10,000) across Canada. The
magazine uses
24 indicators that cover everything from weather, housing, household
income,
and job prospects to lifestyle items such as health care, crime rates,
educational institutions and amenities. Cobourg has moved up the ranks
from
its 36th place standing in 2008.
The ranking comes as no surprise to Cobourg's business development
officer,
Wendy Gibson.
"The attributes (listed by MoneySense) are all the quality-of-life
things we
promote for business attraction and relocation," said Ms. Gibson.
Promoting the town as a retirement community is not a priority for the
economic development department, she said. Through Cobourg's
geographic
location - its proximity to the GTA - and a growing number of aging
baby
boomers looking for an alternative lifestyle, "it's a given we would
see a
55-plus age group looking at our community," she noted.
Best Places to Live: Retirement
Phil Froates and Rob Gerlsbeck
MoneySense
When you stop working, jobless stats become meaningless. Health
care jumps up your list of priorities, as does weather since you'll
no longer be stuck in an office. To find Canada's best places to
retire, we built a scoring system designed to reflect the realities
of old age.
We started by awarding points for a pleasant climate. We also
rewarded cities with lots of health-care workers per capita. Because
retirees live on fixed incomes, we handed out bonus points for low
taxes. And we looked for places with low crime, easy walking and
affordable homes. Turns out that the top three places to
retire—Victoria, Kingston and Ottawa—are also the cities we think
are best to live in at any age. See? Some things don't change as you
get older.
For a full list of Canada's Best Places to Live 2009, visit
http://list.canadianbusiness.com/rankings/bestplacestolive/2009 |
