Montreal residents enjoy a superior quality of life compared with residents of 14 other major North American cities — but the city needs to play catch-up in terms of its economic development.
That's what came from the second annual study done by the Institut du Québec, along with the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal and Montreal International.
The study ranks 15 cities according to 29 different social and economic indicators in five categories: economic vitality, human capital, innovation, quality of life, and attractiveness.
The city is top of the list when it comes to quality of life for residents and wealth distribution, as well as the city with the lowest crime rate.
"The wealth distribution is more equal here, there's a low crime rate...the public uses public transit more than other cities, and Montreal is a safe place," says Mia Homsy with the Institut du Québec.
Economically speaking, however, the city has some serious catching up to do — for instance, Montrealers make less money than people in other cities, and rank near the very bottom in terms of productivity and per capita GDP.
"With the data we saw last year, we thought Montreal was starting to catch up in terms of economic data," Homsy says, "But...we're not catching up yet."
In terms of human capital, Montreal places 13th — with a high dropout rate among high school students and low university graduation rate. The survey notes Montreal does attract high-quality immigrants, but has trouble integrating them into the job market.
In terms of innovation, the city fares a little better, placing 10th — noting Montreal has the capacity to innovate, but doesn't live up to its potential.
"We have amazing universities, we have many researchers, we publish many articles in scientific publications...but it doesn't translate in higher productivity; it doesn't translate in more innovation that can be commercialized," Homsy says.
Michel Leblanc, the head of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, also suggests in order for Montreal to start climbing the ladder, it might do well to start paying attention to what will happen south of the border — particularly with the incoming administration of Donald Trump.
"We have a neighbor, the U.S., that just elected a president that said he's going to reduce business taxes, and we must remain fiscally attractive," Leblanc says. "Over the next year, we're going to have to pay attention to what happens south of the border to make sure that our environment remains attractive for business and business investment."
The survey compared Montreal with Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Denver, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego.