“We did it again Salmon Arm!”
This was the Salmon Arm Economic Development Society’s response, shared in a Wednesday, Dec. 4 post on Facebook, to news the city had been ranked the seventh best place to work in the province for 2020 by BC Business Magazine.
This follows Maclean’s Magazine’s August release of their Best Communities in Canada list for 2019, in which Salmon Arm ranked number one in B.C. and number six nationwide.
Read more: Salmon Arm moves up in best-place ranking
Read more: Senior Golds enter Okanagan Valley Championships as top-ranked team
The latest honour was printed in BC Business Magazine’s December/January edition, which includes the ranking of 46 municipalities. Salmon Arm received a seventh-place ranking, behind Fort St. John in 6th place and Kelowna in 5th. Squamish and Whistler received top honours, coming in first and second place respectively.
This is the first time Salmon Arm has made into the top 10 in this list. In 2018, Salmon Arm was ranked in 29th place, and 19th in 2019.
The data used to create the ranking relied heavily on Environics Analytics, the same statistics company used for the Maclean’s Magazine article over the summer.
Compared to the 45 other municipalities ranked, the data lists the average household income for Salmon Arm to be $97,520, and the average household income for people under age 35 at $82,145.
According to the ranking, Salmon Arm is in a three-way tie for eighth for the shortest average commute time of 16.8 minutes, and a five-way tie for the 13th lowest unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent.
Read more: Salmon Arm named best community in B.C.
Read more: Best B.C. cities to live in: millennial edition
Salmon Arm mayor Alan Harrison credits the city’s rising rankings to promotion efforts made by the Salmon Arm Economic Development Society.
“I think we’re being recognized throughout the province in a way that we haven’t been in the past,” Harrison said. “I have to credit Salmon Arm Economic Development because they really have moved the word out across the province.”
Harrison went on to say previous iterations of these lists did not include many quality of life categories, but now that categories like average commute time are included, it has worked in Salmon Arm’s favour.
@CameronJHTCameron.thomson@saobserver.netLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
