Metro Vancouver ranked 8th-safe among major Canadian cities

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A new national survey about the perception of public safety finds we’re having a tough time changing the views of the rest of the country.

It appears Metro Vancouver is getting a bit of a bad rap and the folks at Mainstreet Research, who are behind the numbers, say it’s because this region is a big media hub. Stories that break here — specifically in Vancouver because it’s a major city — tend to be heard, read and seen across the country more compared to a story that may break in Maple Ridge, for example.

According to the research firm, people in other parts of the country associate everything with Vancouver, when that may not always be the case.

The company’s David Valentin says the opioid crisis is an example of that, but he adds there’s a silver lining.

“Vancouver is still very well regarded by Canada and in fact, is performing better than we would expect. And I think partly that may have to do with the fact Vancouver has done a very good job of branding itself, that we hear it’s a very desirable place to live. This is a bit of an anomaly compared to other major cities we look at.”

Metro Vancouver is considered to have the fifth-highest crime rate among 15 major cities, despite Statistics Canada recently saying severe crime had dropped a bit in BC. Overall, the survey shows just over half of all respondents (53%) feel Metro Vancouver is safe, which is up just one point over last year. However, a third feel it’s not and that amount has actually gone up by three points.

“It’s hard to say if [Metro] Vancouver is getting a bad rap when we see discourse for Toronto, when we see discourse for Montreal and the fact that they have much lower crime rates than Vancouver, yet they’re ranked much lower on perceived safety. Vancouver was ranked nine out of 15 last year; now, it’s risen one place to eight out of 15. [It’s] sort of middle of the pack, in terms of how safe and unsafe we think cities are. But when we look at the actual crime rate, Vancouver has the fifth-highest crime rate of the 15 cities we looked at,” explains Valentin.

Victoria is the only other BC city ranked and it placed third on the list.

Winnipeg is considered the most unsafe place in the country, barely beating Toronto.

Mainstreet survey’s ranking of Canadian Cities, from least to most safe

Winnipeg
Toronto
Montreal
Saskatoon
Quebec City
Calgary
Regina
Metro Vancouver
Halifax
Edmonton
St. John’s
Moncton
Victoria
Charlottetown
Ottawa