St. Albert is again a little less safe according to Maclean’s magazine, which released its annual report this week ranking the city as the 41st safest in Canada.
The ranking on the magazine’s most dangerous cities in Canada list is a further slide for the city, which appeared among the 10 safest in the first two years of the survey, and finished 31st last year.
The most dangerous cities in Canada according to the survey were Prince George, B.C., Victoria, Saskatoon, Red Deer and Regina.
The safest cities were Caledon, Ont., Centre Wellington, Ont., Halton Region, Ont., Nottawasaga, Ont. and Levis, Que.
Mayor Nolan Crouse said the annual survey is another reminder that the city can do more on the issue.
“While we are still better than the Canadian average it is still unacceptable in my opinion and we have got to a better job.”
The city was safer than most other Alberta cities, including Edmonton, Calgary, Grande Prairie and Medicine Hat, but was not as safe as regional neighbour Strathcona County.
Crouse said he wants to see the city moving in the other direction and not sliding.
“You want to be at the other end of that spectrum, you want to be down where Caledon is year after year instead of where Prince George is.”
In the first two years of the survey the magazine used a measure based on six crimes; robbery, aggravated assault, breaking and entering, sexual assault, auto theft and homicide.
In the last two years the magazine has added another measure called the Crime Severity Index, which Statistics Canada uses to calculate safety. The index takes all crimes and then gives heavier weight to more serious crimes like homicide and robbery and less weight to more minor offences, like vandalism or shoplifting.
St. Albert was well below the national average on the six crimes the magazine features.
With no murders in the city last year, or for several years, the city was 100 per cent below the national average, it was 29 per cent below the average on sexual assaults, 38 per cent below in aggravated assaults, 63 per cent below in robbery, 41 per cent below in breaking and entering and 24 per cent below in auto theft.
The magazine also uses a population statistic, which is based on estimated growth from the last census overstating the city’s population by about 5,000 people.
Crouse said regardless of any problems with the methodology, he still wants to see the city do better on the annual survey.
“I don’t care how they calculate it, if you are not at the bottom of that list then you have some work to do.”
He said the city would probably learn something from communities like Caledon, which consistently ranks at the lower end of the list.
“Whether you like the statistics or not they still must be doing something we can learn from.”
He said right now the city is simply too close to the middle for his liking.
