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New Tecumseth named #5 community to live in: Maclean’s

August 23, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Wendy Gabrek

Maclean’s Magazine has ranked New Tecumseth the fifth best place to live in Canada, in its recent “Canada’s Best Communities 2019” edition.

Of the 415 communities surveyed, New Tecumseth follows only Burlington, Grimsby, Ottawa, and Oakville on the list, and earned the designation based on combined scores for Demographics, Low Crime Rate and Culture and Community.

“Our small town charm is balanced with a mix of urban and rural amenities that help make our community a desirable destination to live, work and play,” Mayor Rick Milne, told The Times. “We have long celebrated that the Town of New Tecumseth is one of the best communities to call home. To now have the acknowledgment, recognition and ranking from Maclean’s Magazine is an absolute honour and we are very proud of our Town.”

Maclean’s Best Communities in Canada rankings factored in 10 criteria: wealth and economy, affordability, population growth, taxes, commute, crime, weather, access to health care, amenities and culture. 

With a population of 38,054, New Tecumseth, has less than a 5 per cent unemployment rate; has a median household income of $95,385; an average household net worth of $845,233; pays just 2.5 per cent of income towards property taxes; averages 122 days a year above 20ºC; has a low crime index; and 97 per cent of the population has a family doctor.

“New Tecumseth, a town in Ontario’s Simcoe County, took fifth place. Like Grimsby, it’s one of our ‘super small towns,’ benefiting from its proximity to Toronto as well as small-town advantages like low crime and high community engagement. More than three-fifths of this year’s top 50 spots went to towns with populations under 40,000. These communities are all either within driving distance of a larger population centre or hubs of local economic activity in their own right, and beat out the big cities in affordability, low crime and community engagement. Almost half of these super small towns are in Ontario,” reads the Maclean’s article.

“I am absolutely thrilled about [our community] being named the fifth best place to live in Canada and we will reach number one,” said Town of New Tecumseth Deputy Mayor Richard Norcross. “We owe it all to our incredible volunteer organizations and residents who continuously give tirelessly of themselves to make our community great. Our sense of family, friends, inclusion and the simple belief that together is better is what makes life great here.”

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