An example: Saskatoon(pop ~260k) has a murder rate than NYC(pop ~8.4m).
You seem to be missing a word from this sentence. Might it perhaps be "lower"? Because it's the only one that would be factual.
In 2013, according to the Saskatoon Police Service's crime map, Saskatoon had a total of 4 homicides (Which occurred on January 1, July 11, August 20, and August 30). That's a rate of 1.80/100k (city population is 222k. 260k is the census metropolitan area, which includes bedroom communities, which aren't part of Saskatoon's crime stats)
In 2013, NYC had 333 homicides. That's a rate of 3.96/100k.
I'm fairly sure that 1.8<3.96