Crime rankings absent from Maclean's magazine

In contrast to this time last year, a controversial comparison of crime rates for Canada's cities is not included in the current issue of Maclean's magazine, although at least one more edition is expected to be produced before 2013 is out.

The weekly newsmagazine, which has declared Prince George as "Canada's most dangerous city" for three straight years, did not return a request for comment Thursday.

But Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass said the detachment's superintendent Eric Stubbs, spoke to the magazine about a month ago and was told Maclean's has backed away from continuing the annual ranking.

"In past years it has come out in January, it has come out in October, so there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for when it comes out but at that point a month ago, nobody discussed it, it wasn't on the table, it looked like it wasn't going to happen, so it's more than likely it's not going to happen," Douglass said.

Mayor Shari Green said she has not heard one way or the other whether Maclean's will no longer be carrying out the comparison.

The magazine's rankings rely on scores produced by Statistics Canada's crime severity index but has been criticized for narrowing the field to the country's 100 most-populous communities.

"We always look at the top 100 because that's where the vast majority of the population is," Maclean's writer Patricia Treble said when the rankings were published last year.

In contrast to Maclean's, Statistics Canada takes into account all communities with 10,000 or more people, and in in the process, Prince George's position drops to a still-high 14th out of 297 communities, a position held for 2011 and 2012.

Statistics Canada releases its rankings every July. The index weighs violent crimes like murder more heavily than petty drug or property offences.

Neither Douglass nor Mayor Shari Green will miss Maclean's treatment if it is abandoned.

"It's an inaccurate thing anyway," Douglass said. "They don't judge every community, they only put a few they want to judge in there and put them under the microscope."

Indications were that Red Deer or Grande Prairie would top Maclean's assessment this year.

If Maclean's has decided not to continue the survey, Prince George will not be able to relinquish a dubious title, but Green said it is something she's happy not to see passed on to another city.

"Nobody deserves the headline they create with the way that they spin the numbers," Green said.

She would also like to see Statistics Canada include communities with fewer than 10,000 in its survey.

"If you're going to do the stats, it's everything everywhere," Green said.

Maclean's included its crime ranking in last year's annual newsmakers issue but it is not part of this year's edition, which is on the stands for the weeks of Dec. 9 and 16.