Caledon ranked as a safe place in Canada

Written By JOSHUA SANTOS

New analysis of crime numbers has Caledon as the 20th safest place to live in Canada.

The town ranked 218 out of 237 municipalities oN Maclean Magazine's annual Canada's Most Dangerous Place list.

“Caledon is very safe. Out of 237 communities we ranked across the country, it has the 20th lowest crime severity index (CSI), a Statistics Canada measure that accounts for both the number of crimes and their seriousness, said Claire Brownell, associate editor of reports and rankings at Maclean's Magazine in an email interview.

“It is also getting safer, with its CSI dropping 3.8 per cent from 2012 to 2017. The only crime we examined where Caledon had a higher rate than the median community was cocaine trafficking and distribution, where the rate per 100,000 people rose 341 per cent from 2016 to 13.15 in 2017.”

The list has Caledon ranked above Essa and area and Norwich but lower than South Frontenac and Repentigny and Charlemagne, Que.

It breaks down each municipality in four categories. Homicide, assault and bodily harm, theft and property crime, drug offences and youth crime.

There were zero homicides in 2017. Breaking and entering rate per 100,000 people was 200.2 and assault level 1 rate per 100,000 people was 182.66. The town has a four per cent change in CSI.

For comparison, Orangeville, just 20 minutes away, has a breaking and entering rate per 100,000 people of 99.35 and an assault level 1 rate per 100,000 people of 316.69. They dropped 16 per cent in the five-year per change.

Caledon also ranked 219 out of 237 communities in violent crime severity index.

“It makes Caledon one of the safest communities in the country in terms of violent crime. The rank goes from no. 1 for the most dangerous city to no. 237 for the safest city. Violent crime is on the rise in Caledon, however, with its VCSI increasing from 17.63 in 2012 to 24.2 in 2017,” said Brownell.

Wetaskiwin, Alta, a town about an hour's drive south of Edmonton with a population of 15,000 increased 100.63 points to 257.54. It has the fastest growing crime problem in 2019, followed by Red Deer and Lethbridge.

Rothsay and Quispamis, N.B, was named the safest place in the country, followed by Selwyn, Ont. and Amhertsburg.

Canada's most dangerous place list focused in Western Canada. Out of 59 places with CSI in the top 25 per cent, 49 are in British Columbia or the Prairies.

Across the country, the CSI rose for the third consecutive year after 11 years of declines. According to Statistics Canada, one reason for that was a significant increase in sexual assaults reported to police in a year of widespread attention to the #MeToo movement.

The CSI was created in an effort to paint a more accurate picture of crime levels than the crime rate can. For example, a town that has experienced a wave of vandalism and petty theft might have a higher crime rate than another town with more assaults and murderers, even though the crimes committed in the second town were much more serious, according Brownell in a Maclean's statement.

“We compare annual crime data for police services categorized as municipal by Statistics Canada and covering populations of at least 10,000 people, said Brownell. “This involves combining the data for police services in each province, analyzing it to rank each community by CSI and the rates of various crimes, assigning a reporter to get the in-depth story behind a city with an interesting or alarming trend, this year Aaron Hutchins went to Wetaskiwin, Alta., whose CSI has grown the fastest in the country over five years, and compiling it all for publication online and in print. Analyzing the data and coming up with the list takes a few days and the entire package takes a team of people a few weeks.”

Maclean's ranking of communities with the fastest-growing and shrinking crime is based on the difference between each area's CSI in 2017 and 2012.