UkLiam

Hi everyone,

My name is Liam and I am a civil engineering manager currently based in the Humber region of the uk.

It has always been a dream of mine and my wife's to move to Canada and I have recently had some interest from companies in the greater Toronto area.

If anyone could give me information on living in either oakville or Burlington it would be greatly appreciated (we are planning a trip to come and see for ourselves before making any decisions) and what the going rate for civil engineers construction managers is.

Thanks,

Liam

johntheScot

hi

could do with a bit more information. could you clarify what kind of work you do in your post you have given yourself 3 slightly different titles that can have some very different meanings.

Civil Engineer, civil engineering manager and construction manager

I assume you are a Contractors construction/project manager, there are a fair few in that line of work on this forum, but to get an idea of what kind rate you may get it may be useful to give an idea of your experience and qualifications.

I would also like to clarify the term Civil Engineer, the term Engineer is reserved for provincially licensed Professional Engineers P.Eng. You may or may not qualify to become a P.Eng depending on your qualifications. Working for a contractor this is not necessary if however you are on the civil consulting side it is a lot more important.

withabix

It sounds like the OP wants a job that falls within NOC 0711 Construction Managers.

This is a fairly broad category, so you could fit that category with anything over about 8-10 years in the industry and hence salary-wise the range is broad too.

Ignoring the Oil Sands, because they won't be doing much recruiting, you're probably looking at a $2:£1 salary conversion rate for a similar position to your current job, ie if you were earning £40k in the UK, you should be able to get $80k in Canada etc etc.

I am a Senior Project Manager working in BC and get $110k plus a fairly decent 4-door truck with only a very small company logo. I am site based on a $30 million project at the moment, but this is quite unusual and you're more likely to be based in an office, however that is changing a bit currently. Site facilities are not generally set up to the standards you would be used to in the UK. Portaloos and run-down site office trailers are the norm!

'Fairly decent trucks' are quite unusual though unless you work for a small company - you are unlikely to get a company vehicle at all with many contractors and if you get one it will more likely be a basic work truck (sign-written, yellow, vinyl seats etc), if anything at all, except in senior roles. You will often be expected to transport biggish things to site in the back of that truck (or towed behind) too. Company cars are very rare in construction.

Note that you do need to be able to show that you are more involved in the QS/commercial side of things than in the UK to succeed here, because in Canada (except possibly in the Oil Sands), you ARE the QS!