One of the more troubling results this year is that the six bottom spots—Laval, Longueuil, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Saguenay—are all in Quebec. Trois-Rivières and Saguenay, where the rate of volunteering and the percentage who socialize regularly with other cultures is half that of Saskatoon, are considered “at-risk” by the CCL.
Once, you might have imagined the same of St. John’s. “When the index was launched there was a clear East-West gradient in favour of the West,” says Cappon. Newfoundland and New Brunswick have done very specific things to improve the conditions of learning in their cities. The healthier the economy, the more willing employers are to make investments in human infrastructure, offering job-related training, apprenticeships and mentoring programs.
For starters, incomes in St. John’s have always lagged well behind other Canadian cities, says David Campbell, a Moncton-based expert in economic development. But incomes are climbing rapidly; already, the city boasts the highest median income in Atlantic Canada—it’s almost on par with Ontario, Campbell adds. And income, he says, drives everything. More money in your pocket means there’s more available to spend on new technology, sports and recreation—and it puts “more bums in seats,” adds Greenwood. Suddenly, people in St. John’s “aren’t so nervous about spending $60, $70 for a ticket to a show,” says Memorial University’s Gail Gosse, noting that even Cirque de Soleil touched down in St. John’s last year. These days, it seems, there’s a book launch, an art or a choir event every night. “You have to choose what to miss,” says gallery owner Emma Butler. Her George Street West space, the Emma Butler Gallery, features local big guns: Christopher and Mary Pratt and David Blackwood. Not long ago, she adds, you couldn’t miss a thing—there wasn’t anything to miss. Local officials realize that cities are more than “sidewalks, brick and mortar,” says Mayor Dennis O’Keefe. Ten years ago, that wasn’t the case. Now, he says, the city says yes to busker festivals, yes to parades and to street closures. “We have a city council that says: yeah, we can find the money for that—we can help make it happen.”
More money, both public and private, is being poured into local arts festivals, the symphony and the philharmonic choir, and residents are spending more on theatre and concert tickets, museums and books. Five galleries have opened in the past few years. The Rooms, the spectacular, new, all-in-one provincial art gallery, museum and archive designed by Christopher Pratt’s brother, Philip, has injected the arts scene with an aura of prestige, says Butler. City sports and recreation programs are full; the more popular programs have wait lists, says city official Elizabeth Lawrence. The local heritage centre is offering free classes in weaving and cartooning, grassroots efforts to improve community centres and neighbourhoods abound, and Memorial University has kicked up the number of public lectures and breakout sessions it offers the local community. A “huge cohort” of leisure learners has recently enrolled at Memorial University—teachers picking up courses in library studies, and professionals taking “Developing Green Buildings,” and “e-Marketing Essentials,” explains Gosse, its program head. The College of the North Atlantic, the largest college in the province, has doubled the number of spots in many of its trades programs.
A smart city, after all, is one where people are engaged with each other, the government, and the businesses around it, says Bert Sperling, the Portland, Ore.-based founder of Sperling’s Best Places, which ranks municipalities by living conditions. The promise of a job, say experts, is no longer enough to attract smart people; cities need amenities, vibrancy and culture, which “signal that these are prosperous, exciting places,” says Stolarick. St. John’s, he adds, has begun acting as a “magnet,” sucking up talent from nearby provinces. New investments in arts, culture and formal education are all parts of the puzzle.
Gosse says 10 years ago she would never have guessed St. John’s could look the way it does today. Recently, she was asked to create a purchasing list for new university equipment. At first, she was stuck. After a decade of trimming budgets, laying off staff and cutting programs, she had to relearn that skill.
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