Perhaps the Canadian region with the most to boast about is Atlantic Canada and parts of Québec, where costs are as much as 10 percent below the U.S. average. Sherbrooke, Québec, for example, scored 90.1 and Québec City 92.6. In Atlantic Canada, the leaders are Moncton, N.B. (91.1), Charlottetown, P.E.I. (91.7), Halifax, N.S. (92.2) and St. John's, Newfoundland (94.3).
   For even lower scores, one can see in the "Other Sponsored Cities" section results below 90. In Nova Scotia, Truro came in at 89.4 overall, and Pictou finished at 89.9. In specific industries, business costs are dramatically lower than the U.S. average, particularly in the R&D sector.
   "Some of these cities have particularly low costs, but in the main part of the report, all of the cities we look at have metro or regional populations of about 100,000 and up," Mair points out. "A lot of the other sponsored cities in the back of the report are in the 30,000 to 100,000 population range."
   In Ontario, two metros deserve mention: The Waterloo Region came in at 94.3 and Ottawa, the federal capital, has a 5 percent cost advantage over the U.S.
   Western Canadian cities also demonstrate an overall cost advantage over U.S. locations. Leaders in that region are Saskatoon, Sask. (92.8), Edmonton, Alb. (93.3), Winnipeg, Man. (94.1) and Calgary, Alb. (94.7). All U.S. locations of a similar size scored higher, with several, including Minneapolis, Houston, St. Louis, Dallas-Ft. Worth and others exceeding the baseline of 100.
   To learn how Canadian cities fared in the KPMG analysis in key industry sectors, see the Top 10 Cities charts.