From: THE BELLEVILLE INTELLIGENCER ,June 9, 1999 Page 1

There's no place like home

Quinte ranks first in quality of living: development council
By Intelligencer staff

Quinte's the best - again. The Quinte community has, once again, been judged as having the highest Quality of Life Index rating among 11 communities participating a project according to the Ontario Social Development Council (OSDC). Last fall, Quinte was judged as having the top QLI rating in the province and that trend continued today with the spring update from the OSDC. Quinte, Ottawa and Peterborough all scored above the provincial average of 99.9.

Quinte rated at 107.2, Ottawa at 107.07 and Peterborough at 106.3. Other communities rated included Thunder Bay, Halton, Cambridge, North Bay, Toronto, Brant with Guelph and Sault Ste. Marie rating last at 72.

The OSDC spring 1999 release is the fourth in a series that "attempts to monitor the living and working conditions of Ontarians," according to the release. The QLI is a "composite index made up of 12 indicators covering social, health, economic and environmental conditions which affect the quality of life" according to the quality of life web site.

Mayor Ross McDougall said that while he is "of course pleased we have once again been recognized for our excellent quality of life," the region can't stop being concerned about the area's poor and disenfranchised. "I don't think we can rest on our laurels. We should continue to be as concerned as we ever were on our homelessness people and the fact the area economy doesn't always work for everyone. We have to continue to concentrated on keeping the focus on those who need help in our communities, while at the same time continuing to promote the things that again put us on top of the list in Ontario."

The report adds: "Statistics collected through the project reveal that the quality of life in Ontario has almost recovered to that of 1990 but that there are some extremely disturbing trends across the province." As an example, the OSDC says:

it's taken nine years to recover from a base score of 100 in 1990 (it went significantly) to a score of 99.9 this spring;
the greatest gain occurred in the environmental sector despite less rigid environmental regulations of the past decade;
the greatest setbacks are found in the growing "social deficit" which includes such sectors as public housing, child welfare, long term care, new cancer cases and increasing number of bankruptcies across the province.

The locally run Community Development Council of Quinte has also issued a statement regarding the QLI spring report, which points to several high points in the report and several areas of concern. Locally, says the CDC, there are fewer people on public housing waiting lists; unemployment figures are down; number of people waiting for placement into long-term care facilities has decreased considerably; fewer toxic spills occurred in 1998 that in 1990 and participating in the blue box recycling program continues to grow. But the CDC says there are areas of concern including the fact that more people are on social assistance that in 1990; number of children admitted to child welfare organizations has increased; fewer people are active participants in the labour force despite a decrease in the number of people who are unemployed; bankruptcies are growing with Trenton especially hard hit with 54 bankruptcies per 10,000 people and Belleville at 44.5 per 10,000; number of cancer cases continues to increase locally at a rate of 15 percent each year since 1990 and problems associated with measuring air quality in Quinte region continue to result in the indicator having been pegged at 1990 levels for Quinte.