Ottawa cheapest city in North America: survey
Last Updated Mon, 20 Jun 2005 16:53:43 EDT
CBC News
Ottawa is the cheapest North American city in which to live, according to research released on Monday by a global employment consultancy.


FROM MARCH 13, 2005: Vancouver 3rd in world in quality of life survey


Pedestrians cross the street in downtown Ottawa. (CP photo)
Lower food and utility prices allowed Canada's capital to beat out Atlanta for the 122 spot on a list of 144 cities worldwide ranked according to cost of living.

Tokyo retained its position as the world's most expensive city and neighbouring Osaka replaced London in the number 2 spot, according to the annual list compiled by Mercer Human Resources Consulting.

The survey conducted in March measured the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing and entertainment.

Mercer chose the cities surveyed based on demand for information from its clients, most often multinational corporations and government agencies.

They use the data to determine compensation allowances for expatriate employees.

New York, at 13, and London, at 3, remained the costliest places to live in North America and Europe, respectively.

The index complemented a quality of living survey done by the company in March. Together, they show Canada has a relatively affordable high quality of life.

"Canada and Australia have probably the nicest balance of the two – relatively low cost of living and pretty high quality of living," Mercer spokeswoman Danielle Buschen said.


FROM JUNE 17, 2003: Tokyo named world's most expensive city

Overall, Canadian cities ranked higher than last year because the decline of the U.S. dollar made goods more expensive in Canada, Buschen said. The same currency's decline relative to the yen pushed the Japanese cities to the top of the list.

Toronto placed 82, retaining its title as the country's costliest city. Vancouver, 87; Calgary, 98; and Montreal at 107 were the other major Canadian cities on the list.

European cities dominated the top 20 due to high food and transportation costs.

Latin American cities ranked near or at the bottom of the list, with 142-placed Buenos Aires still trying to recover from Argentina's 2002 monetary crisis. Asuncion in Paraguay was ranked least expensive.