Oakville, Ontario, named best Canadian city for immigrants

Oakville, which was also named the best Canadian city overall, has a population of roughly 200,000 people and is located on the shores of Lake Ontario around 40 kilometres southwest of Toronto. (Photo by Stefen Acepcion/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

A new survey has crowned Oakville, Ontario, as 2018’s best Canadian city for immigrants.

The survey by the online magazine Moneysense put Oakville ahead of nearby Toronto, which is widely considered the destination of choice for most newcomers to Canada.

Toronto ranked fifth in the Best Places to Live for New Canadians category, one of several that constitute MoneySense‘s annual Canada’s Best Places to Live survey.

Oakville, which was also named the best Canadian city overall, has a population of roughly 200,000 people and is located on the shores of Lake Ontario around 40 kilometres southwest of Toronto.

Moneysense says its reputation for wealthy residents and mega-mansions is balanced by access to affordable housing and “its small-town sense of community.”

MoneySense ranked 415 Canadian cities based on their scores in 10 categories: Wealth and economy, affordability, population growth, taxes, commute, crime, weather, access to health care, amenities, and culture.

“A liveable city should be prosperous, but affordable. Safe, yet easy to get around. And it should have the type of weather that draws you outdoors,” the survey reads.

The ranking of best places for New Canadians is based on the same 10 categories, but the weightings have been adjusted “to reflect the needs and interests of immigrants,” MoneySense says.

“We award points to cities with a large percentage of the population speaking languages other than English and French and increase the importance of a low unemployment rate, affordable rents and access to an airport,” the survey reads.

The survey says the percentage of visible minorities in Oakville increased from 18 per cent to 31 per cent over the last 10 years and about 30 per cent of residents speak a language other than English or French, according to Canada’s most recent census.

The top five Canadian cities for New Canadians in the survey were:

• Oakville, Ontario
• Ottawa, Ontario
• Mont-Royal, Quebec
• King, Ontario
• Toronto, Ontario