The top workplace trend of the past year has to be working from home. Across industries, most workers who can perform their jobs remotely have been doing so. This has given many of us the taste for skipping the commute and being productive in our pyjamas.
Of course, where you live makes a difference in how much you enjoy spending all day every day at home. Working from a one-room condo is quite different from being in a place with a dedicated office and room to move around.
How much space you have often come down to affordability.
If you can work remotely, very remote regions can offer much lower costs of living. You can get more houses for your dollars. However, rural regions don’t always provide the same access to the reliable high-speed internet connectivity that makes working from home possible. Also, the further away from an urban centre you go, you also lose proximity to the diversity of dining options and cultural attractions that city dwellers enjoy.
So where can you find the right blend of low cost and high service?
A new study has ranked cities across Canada to find the best places for working from home on the basis of affordability, livability, and connectivity. It turns out that the top spots are all in the Eastern Provinces.
The top 10 work-from-home cities in Canada
Dieppe, New Brunswick
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove, Newfoundland
Quispamsis, New BrunswickSait-Zotique, Quebec
Ayr, Ontario
King, Ontario
Coadale, Alberta
Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec
Olds, Alberta
These towns were ranked 50 percent based on affordability – 30 percent of that being the cost of homes and 20 percent being the minimum price for a gigabit of broadband.
The other 50 percent of the ranking was based on ‘livability.’ This is a blend of residential home size, a number of local home-based workers, and access to parks and green spaces as well as restaurants, cafes, and culture.
The study also pointed out Moncton specifically for its quality of life and diverse, bilingual population. Read the full report and methodology from PC Mag.
When you add it all up, the top four places to live and work from home in Canada are in the Atlantic provinces. Find your next local job right now on CareerBeacon.