BCBusinEss.CA dECEMBER/JAnuARy 2018 BCBusiness 29
best
citi
for work
IN B.C.
W
hat are British Colum-
bia's top places to
build a career? Start by
following the money,
but that isn't the
whole story. In our fourth annual
Best Cities for Work in B.C. ranking,
compiled with research partner
Environics Analytics, we measure
a city's attractiveness as a place
to work by putting a two-thirds
weighting on how much residents
earn and where income is heading.
We use the seven economic indi-
cators from the previous survey:
average household income, house-
hold income for primary earners
under age 35, average household
spending on recreation, average
shelter costs, -ve-year population
growth, -ve-year income growth
and unemployment rate.
Northeast oil-and-gas power-
houses Fort St. John and Dawson
Creek return to the top three,
with the former taking the lead
from Squamish (No. 3 this year)
and the latter climbing to No. 2.
Lower Mainland residents might
‹ind those communities' staying
power surprising, given the persis-
tent slump in fossil fuel prices and
last summer's cancellation of the
Paci-c NorthWest lique-ed natural
gas megaproject. But anyone who's
visited Dawson Creek (see page
32) knows that the city is contend-
ing with a boom fuelled by multi-
billion-dollar investment in oil and
gas extraction and infrastructure.
This year, to better gauge qual-
ity of life, we also take into account
how many people walk or bike to
work—arguably a better yardstick
than the number who use public
OuR AnnuAl RAnkinG OF ThE PROVinCE's BEsT CiTiEs FOR wORkinG PEOPlE
TuRns FOuR wiTh An ACCEnT On quAliTy OF liFE. Plus: wE TAkE An insidER TOuR OF FROnTRunnER
dAwsOn CREEk And ChECk in wiTh ThREE yOunG REsidEnTs OF FAsT-GROwinG CAMPBEll RiVER
b y n i C k r o C k e l
i n 2 0 1 8
w h e r e t o
Exclusiv
b c b U s i n e s s
s U r v e y
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