This map shows the quality of the economic environment:
the environment in which people engage in, and benefit from, economic
activity that includes aspects of paid employment and household
finances. The indicators of the economic environment measure the
ability of households to access goods and services important to
quality of life.
Indicators of the Economic Environment
The following seven indicators are used to assess the quality of
the economic environment:
Household Finances
Employment/Paid Work
Methodology
Five classes have been used to map the quality of the economic
environment: low, fair, moderate, good and high. ‘Moderate’
quality of life can be seen as the average, whereas ‘low’
is well below the average and ‘high’ is well above average.
A ‘low’ classification for a community implies that
it scored low on all indicators of the economic environment; conversely,
a community with a ‘high’ classification more than likely
scored above average on all indicators. The score for each community
(or census
subdivision) was calculated using a methodology called the
standard score additive method. In this method,
the data are standardized.
The resulting values, called z-scores,
were then added or subtracted, according to the direction of the
indicator. The indicator direction is either inverse (–) or
direct (+), where inverse indicates that a high value implies a
lower quality of life; conversely, a high value for a direct relationship
implies a higher quality of life.
Refer to the Data
and Mapping Notes section for further details on the methodology
and the rationale for choosing the indicators listed above to map
the economic environment.
Geographic Description
The map shows the variations in the quality of economic environment
from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. Unfortunately, there
is insufficient data to map the three territories, since only communities
with data for all economic environment indicators have been mapped.
Across Canada, the distribution in the economic quality of life
is varied. In most provinces, the northern areas vary from low to
high, except in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador,
which generally show moderate to low. The areas that score high
in the north are larger unconsolidated communities or districts,
such as Stikine Regional District in northern British Columbia and
the James Bay unconsolidated area in northern Quebec. Most of the
northern areas with high values, such as Wood Buffalo, Alberta,
have very high average employment incomes compared to the average
incomes in other rural areas in the south (for example, Eldon, New
Brunswick). The geographic pattern at a larger scale in the south
shows the distribution of the urban cities, which are generally
low to moderate, and the surrounding urban areas, which show good
to high. This pattern is illustrated in Figure 1 for Toronto and
its surrounding area.
[D] Click for larger version, 330 KB Figure 1. Distribution of the Economic Quality of Life for Toronto, Ontario and surrounding area
One possible explanation for this pattern is that the urban centres
of a larger metropolitan area possess a more diverse population
than the cities surrounding larger metropolitan areas (such as Nepean,
located outside what was, in 1996, the city of Ottawa, and Oakville,
located outside Toronto) in terms of households with varied average
incomes, greater differences in household income distribution, and
greater levels of unemployment. All of this variance in the range
of values for each these indicators contributes to a lower overall
quality of the economic environment.
Use the various zoom mapping tools, found at the top of the map,
to zoom into locations across Canada to compare the quality of the
economic environment from region to region, city to city or town
to town. Use the Get Statistics tool to view the data used to derive
the index value for each community. Alternatively, turn on one of
the indicator thematic map layers to view the distribution of each
indicator of the economic environment. Each indicator is divided
into five classes, with the average value falling in the middle
and two classes occurring above and below. Table 1 is a comparison
of the quality of the economic environment among larger urban centres,
with populations of more than 150 000.
Table 1. Quality of the Economic Environment of Canada’s
Most Populated Cities
Quality of the Economic Environment of Canada’s Most
Populated Cities
Montréal |
Quebec |
1
016 376 |
Low |
Calgary |
Alberta |
768 082 |
Good |
Toronto |
Ontario |
653
734 |
Moderate |
Winnipeg |
Manitoba |
618
477 |
Moderate |
Edmonton |
Alberta |
616
306 |
Moderate |
North York |
Ontario |
589
653 |
Moderate |
Scarborough |
Ontario |
558
960 |
Fair |
Mississauga |
Ontario |
544
382 |
Moderate |
Vancouver |
British
Columbia |
514
008 |
Fair |
Laval |
Quebec |
330
393 |
Moderate |
Etobicoke |
Ontario |
328
718 |
Moderate |
London |
Ontario |
325
646 |
Moderate |
Ottawa |
Ontario |
323
340 |
Moderate |
Hamilton |
Ontario |
322
352 |
Fair |
Surrey |
British
Columbia |
304
477 |
Moderate |
Brampton |
Ontario |
268
251 |
Moderate |
Windsor |
Ontario |
197
694 |
Good |
Saskatoon |
Saskatchewan |
193
647 |
Moderate |
Regina |
Saskatchewan |
180
400 |
Good |
Burnaby |
British
Columbia |
179
209 |
Moderate |
Kitchener |
Ontario |
178
420 |
Moderate |
Markham |
Ontario |
173
383 |
Good |
Québec |
Quebec |
167
264 |
Low |
|
Data source: Natural Resources Canada. 2003.
Quality of Life: Economic Environment Index [ Map]. Ottawa:
Natural Resources Canada.
For another perspective on the quality of the economic environment,
please request the following .xls file ecoc_e.xls from
Contact Us to view the results of the metropolitan influence zone
classification, used to classify municipalities (census subdivisions)
that lie outside census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations
(CAs) according to the degree of influence that CMA/CAs
have on them. This classification precedes standardization of the
data, prior to the addition of the z-scores. In this table, only
communities (census subdivisions) with the same classification are
compared to one another. Refer to the Data
and Mapping Notes section for more information on the classification
methodology. |