TORONTO, January 27, 1998 -- York University's Institute for Social Research has launched Canada's first annual survey of the quality of life in Toronto, and will expand the initiative next year to include an ongoing comparison with the country's second largest city, Montreal.

"This survey will be significant -- locally, regionally, and nationally -- for several reasons. First of all, the results will give us an early indication of how people in the expanded Toronto feel their new government is managing the additional responsibilities handed down by the provincial government," said Dr. Paul Grayson, Director of York University's Institute for Social Research. And secondly, when we expand our survey to include the views of Montrealers, it will be the country's first on-going survey comparing the quality of life in Canada's two largest cities."

Grayson, who is also a Professor of Sociology at York University, said the original initiative called for a telephone survey of 400 Torontonians and 400 Montrealers, but the effects of the ferocious ice storm would have made communication difficult, and would invariably have biased the results.

This initial survey will canvass 800 Torontonians, with an accuracy rate of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20. When the Montreal survey is added next year, the combined samples will also be accurate within 3.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20. And for each city, samples of this size are accurate within 4.9 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

The survey will focus on the following areas: