Urban Canada is overwhelmingly understood – by the media, by much of the public, and by policy makers – as comprised of a tier of large cities. As a result, the instruments for measuring quality of life in urban areas are calibrated to assess metropolitan factors, not those arising in cities with populations of fewer than 100,000. The objective of this paper is to propose the first generation of a quality of life indicator system and toolkit responding to the distinctive needs, limitations, and varied realities of small towns and small cities.
