Prince George and much of Northern BC ranked near the bottom of BC’s Most Economically Resilient Cities list in 2023.
PG ranked 44th out of 50 while other places like Fort St. John (45th), Terrace (46th), Dawson Creek (49th), and Quesnel (50th) placed a few spots lower.
Ten indicators were used to conduct the survey including residents’ sense of belonging and household financial vulnerability.
Andrew Macaulay is a contributor for BC Business Magazine who stated both PG and Quesnel faired pool in the Residential Greenhouse Gas Emission category.
“That’s one that Prince George didn’t fare as well in and generally, a lot of interior and northern cities don’t perform as well as coastal cities because the winters are sort of harsher and more natural gas is used for heating, so that puts you at a disadvantage.”
In addition, the northern capital continues to see fluctuations in terms of job growth.
“One of the biggest ones here that maybe could vary a change or be influenced more from year-to-year would be job creation. I’m not saying it is easy to create jobs but I would say that is a little bit more cyclical where in some years there are more jobs in PG and sometimes less,” added Macaulay.
“In terms of household income and debt levels, is also an indicator of how financially secure a household is on average in a given city. PG ranked 43rd out of 50 cities in that category while Quesnel was 46th.”
Williams Lake was the highest-rated city for the north and Cariboo regions, placing 41st.
Squamish took the top spot – the fourth time it has done so in the ranking’s nine-year history.
A link to the survey can be found here.