‘There’s no place I’d rather live than Hawkesbury’

The seven members of council are proud to call Hawkesbury their hometown.

At the regular meeting of council held Monday, May 31, Mayor Jeanne Charlebois took the opportunity to discuss a recent news article that appeared in a Hawkesbury newspaper calling the town "the worst place to live in Canada."

"I take great exception to that article and to being labeled the worst place to live in Canada," Charlebois commented. "We work hard every single day to ensure our residents have the very best quality of life and articles like that undermine the hard work we're trying to do."

In early May, MoneySense Magazine released its Best Places to Live 2010 survey. The survey was based on data compiled from 179 Canadian cities and towns with populations over 10,000 people.

The magazine rated cities based on climate, prosperity, access to healthcare, home affordability, crime rates and lifestyle, with another 25 subcategories in each area.

According to the survey, Hawkesbury placed 64th of all 179 cities and towns, but came in 179th in the prosperity category, as the town with the lowest average household income.

The magazine explains that it's not surprising to that in order to have a high income in Canada, "you have to move in proximity to Canada's largest cities. The smaller, more rural, the city, the fewer the opportunities are for higher income careers like banking, industry, academia and law."

Charlebois said it is important to "analyze this type of survey in its entirety," noting the town should be very proud of the 64th place finish.

"Hawkesbury came in ahead of cities like Montreal, Toronto and Niagara Falls," she pointed out. "Locally, we ranked higher than our neighbours in Cornwall and Lachute. It's so easy for some to focus on the negative and ignore the positive."

Charlebois urged Hawkesbury residents to "hold our heads high and be proud of our very respectable ranking."

"I am very proud of the place I call home," she said.

Councillors Gilles Roch Greffe and André Chamaillard agreed with Charlebois. Greffe said, "There is nowhere else I'd want to live than Hawkesbury," while Chamaillard noted he came back to Hawkesbury to live after a 20-year absence.

"I love it here," he stated.