Rethinking Lifestyle

Last week Money Sense Magazine created a small stir with its “Canada’s Best Places to Live 2014.” According to that magazine Steinbach is ranked 85th, down significantly from its 2013 ranking, when it was 65th. Interesting, but do we care? Well, I suppose a good ranking here gives us bragging rights, but beyond that, what does it matter? Those of us who already live here, do we really care what ranking some national magazine gives us?

Probably not! After all, we are not going to scan the cities Money Sense Magazine has ranked and on the basis of that decide to move to the city ranked number one. From that point of view what Money Sense has done is a trivial exercise: interesting and entertaining, but not significant. Who is going to look at the Money Sense ranking when they decide where they will live in.

Nevertheless there is value in tracking indicators of well-being. There is value in knowing which way we are trending. To put it simply, we all know that Steinbach and many of the communities in south eastern Manitoba are growing rapidly, but what else is happening. This growth, is it contributing to our well-being, and is it detracting from our well-being? And how can and how does policy affect our well-being? These are important questions, and they can only be answered well if indicators of well-being are gathered, analyzed and published for all to know.

In the absence of a deliberate tracking of well-being indicators, we resort to that which is readily collected. This usually turns out to be some measurement of growth: housing starts, population growth or some variant thereof. We get the occasional report on health or crime statistics, but when such reports come, they present bits and pieces, and it is hard to put it all together in a relevant way and in a way that we all can consider.

But it need not be that way! There are much more meaningful measurements of well-being than growth. We simply need to collect them. This is already being done in many places. Google for indicators of well-being or indicators of happiness, and you will receive many responses.

I did an internet search, and found that others have already done a great deal of work on the collection of indicators of well-being. The Canadian Index of Wellbeing has been measuring well-being nationally for some time, and is offering to work with communities in the gathering and interpreting of meaningful data.

VitalSigns, another organization, is now working with 26 different Canadian communities in the gathering and presentation of  relevant information. I note that our neighbouring city, Winkler, is working with VitalSigns, the only city in Manitoba to do so. The Winkler baseline report was printed in 2012. I encourage you to look for it on-line. Winkler now has a baseline on five areas of interest: learning, health & wellness, the gap between rich and poor, community involvement and arts, culture & recreation. Winkler City Council and other community organizations can now target areas of interest and track whether their policies and activities are having the desired effect.

Surely something like that would be a welcome alternative to our current celebration of growth.