Loving St.Albert

Why community pundits seem to love St. Albert

Folks in St. Albert tend to be a rather modest lot, especially when the topic comes up about how good they have it in this city. In their favour is a living standard that would make most Canadians residing elsewhere envious, from low crime rates to a median household income of roughly $125,000—easily enough to enjoy amenities beyond food and shelter. 

Maybe it’s not in their nature for locals to boast about the superlatives regarding the city. But then, they don’t have to. That task has been taken up by several pundits who make a living at assessing and ranking communities according to the quality of metropolitan life. And most of them can’t say enough about the positive attributes of the city.

“Sometimes, I think we should be shouting our achievements a little louder. I think folks in St. Albert are 100 percent proud of their community, but at the same time, they live here because they expect it to be great.”

said St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron

Case in point was the Globe and Mail listing of St. Albert in 25th place in its annual ranking of most livable cities in Canada released in December, up six spots from the previous year. Examining 448 communities based on some 50 variables, the report said that St. Albert fared well in areas that included crime rates and food costs, both lower than the national average. Tilting the scales even more was a reportedly higher percentage of residents enjoying easy access to medical services including family doctors, and that less than a fifth of its occupants have to spend more than 30 percent of their household income on dwellings. 

But what really leapt out of the report was the Globe and Mail placing St. Albert at 10th overall in entrepreneurship, using criteria that included a supportive business atmosphere and a thriving economy.

“If you’re here thinking of starting a business, that’s fantastic. I think our economic development department is using that to attract future commercial and industrial development.”

Cathy Heron

St. Albert also attracted a great deal of international attention in 2019 when German-based strategic consulting firm Roland Berger listed the city as having the third-best Smart City plan on the planet, trailing London and top-ranked Vienna. Some of the strategies that most impressed the company included a high-tech traffic light system on St. Albert Trail and upgrading how its programs services could be delivered. “That was huge for us,” Heron recalled.

While being a global runner-up is impressive, hitting top spot nationally can also do wonders for civic pride. In 2014, finance publication MoneySense declared St. Albert as the nation’s best overall city in which to reside. According to the findings, the municipality ticked off all the boxes that determined its top status: low unemployment, high incomes, dropping crime rates, and a winter—despite cold spells—that sees the sun shining most of the time. 

St. Albert has been on MoneySense’s radar for several years. In 2013, the city placed second to Calgary for the top spot, although in a different classification, it still was recognized as Canada’s best small city. “There’s something special about this part of Canada,” added the publication that year. “The top three towns on our list of best small cities—St. Albert, Strathcona County and Lacombe—are all within an hour’s drive of Edmonton. This is no coincidence. Affordable housing, low unemployment and high incomes are some of the reasons why these cities earn top marks.”

In 2017, Maclean’s declared St. Albert to be the province’s best city, while otherwise perennially high-ranking Calgary plummeted to 75th place, and Edmonton perilously nosedived even further to 96th spot. “This community of 72,000 on the northwest border of Edmonton continues to impress,” said the publication at the time.

While tempted to sing those high praises to her larger counterparts, Heron realizes that the city didn’t get those rankings on its own. “I like to brag to my colleagues in Calgary and Edmonton, but at the same time, I think the reason the quality of life in St. Albert is successful is because it has a lot to do with the fact that we are on the border of a bigger city like Edmonton,” she said. “Residents can not only enjoy the amenities that are here in St. Albert, but they can also go to an NHL game, so I would say it’s a bit of a symbiotic relationship, and we’re lucky to have it.”

In 2022, the city received plenty of kudos from Vancouver-based Resonance Consulting—a firm specializing in assessing and rating urban centres around the globe—when it unveiled its ranking of Canada’s top small cities. Dubbing St. Albert “Wealthy, healthy and keeping it in Alberta,” Resonance praised the city for its proximity to the Alberta capital and attracting high-income residents and facilitating easy access to health care. 

“St. Albert is very much its own place,” noted the report, which pegged the city in 14th spot. “It’s one of the only bedroom communities surrounding Edmonton that has its own hospital, for one.” Researchers were also impressed that St. Albert was home to western Canada’s largest farmers’ market and its contiguity to a provincial park that doubles as a wildlife preserve. 

But it hasn’t been just St. Albert’s overall profile that’s impressed pundits. More specific services and functions have also earned positive recognition from regional and international admirers. 

• In 2024, as an acknowledgement of the city’s dedication to maintaining its green spaces, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, in association with the Arbor Day Foundation, recognized St. Albert as A Tree City of the World for the fifth consecutive year.
• The city’s library board won the Minister’s Award for Municipal and Public Library Excellence in 2024 for its indigenous-run Community Tea and Bannock drop-in initiative. 
• The community received an Emerald Award in 2020 for the gradual conversion of its bus fleet from fossil fuels to electricity. 
• St. Albert’s administration scored a Canadian Award in 2022 for Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for its concise and transparent financial statements for the 22nd consecutive year.
• Western Investor listed St. Albert as the only Alberta city in its top five list for real estate investment in 2016.

When pressed about which awards, distinctions and rankings she treasured more, Heron claims not to have a personal preference, stating that in many ways, St. Albert has benefited from all of them. “I don’t have a favourite, because they all contribute to who we are,” she said. “All in all, it’s nice to get recognized.”