sineadl

Hi there. We are moving to Toronto from NZ with a work transfer with my husbands job. We are arriving the last week of August. My husband will be based in the city but he is happy to commute to work on public transport. We have 2 kids aged 8 & 5. We are looking for any tips on suburbs to live in. We have heard that Oakville, Pickering and Whitby have good schools & nice areas to live it and it seems that we can afford to live in these areas based on our budget. Schools are the highest priority for us. Any tips at all on schools or info about these areas or other suburbs would be very much appreciated! Thank you!

Sinead

Twitcher1958

If you look elsewhere on the site, you will find generally that standard and choice of schools doesn't vary here in Canada like it does in the UK. Most children go to the school within which catchment area they live, the choice being whether you go for regular, Catholic or French.
We live in Brooklin, and my kids went to schools in both Brooklin and Whitby. We had a visit a few months before we moved here, identified and visited the schools we were likely to use, then contacted them once we moved and had a proper address. We have been happy with the system - one child about to graduate from university, one from high school.
If you have any particular questions about this area, feel free to contact me.

magnumpi

Brooklyn is nice but you will need a car to get to the GO station

Ajax and Pickering are good too, I am bias regarding LA, (lower Ajax) lake front living and a short trip to the GO if needed. Whitby is ok too, as is Clarington area and Bowmanville. Less expensive than the west side

Twitcher1958

Actually, you don't need to have a car to get to the GO station from Brooklin. There is a good regular bus service (302) which starts from the GO station, goes up Brock, does a loop around Brooklin and back down to the GO station. Well used by commuters, and convenient as long as you live reasonably close to one of the stops. I think it costs 60c a ride using PRESTO card and on/off the GO train, so can be an economic solution.

dbd33

If you have enough money why not move to an inner burb and take the subway or tram to work? That way, the children don't depend on you to be their taxi, they can grow up with a degree of independence.

sineadl

Thanks all so much! Will get researching the new suburbs mentioned � ����

Allie73

We're in Ajax. We like it. We're happy with our neighbourhood. We like the kids' school. Property taxes aren't too bad. Lots of parks, playgrounds, rec centres and kid's activities. I'm a stay at home mother and my husband takes the Go train downtown. We manage with one car because we're only a 5 minute bus ride from the station.

Oakvillian

dbd always makes a strong case for the 'inner suburbs' which aren't really suburbs at all but part of the city of Toronto. Recommendations often end up zeroing in on The Beach or High Park (to the east and west of downtown, respectively) as good places to look, with a combination of high walkability, decent access to transit, a reasonable amount of public outdoor space, and so on. Of course, there are compromises here, too - while you may not need to be the kids' chauffeur quite so much, you'll get less space for your money when it comes to housing, and you'll be beholden to Toronto's bizarre city politics, where everyone agrees more money needs to be spent on infrastructure yet nobody has the balls to suggest how that money might be squeezed from the residents.

Travelling in daily is perfectly do-able on the Go train's Lakeshore line (east and west of the city). Be warned that not all other lines run trains all day - several convert to buses outside peak hours. Your shortlist of three suburbs all lie on the Lakeshore line, though, so that's not a big challenge. One thing to note is that (see comments on Toronto city politics above) the Toronto subway system is creaking at the seams. If your OH's work is far enough from Union station that walking is not practicable, then the rigmarole of non-integrated fare systems and overcrowded subway trains will become part of daily life. Things are improving - the unified fare system, sort of a junior version of the Oyster card that London's had since 2003, is finally being rolled out on some TTC services (it's worked on GO and most suburban municipal bus services for several years). But to me, a daily transfer from GO to TTC would be a strong driver to look in Toronto proper for somewhere to live.

I'm biased towards the Western suburbs - I think Oakville, despite (or because of, he says with trepidation?) its not-really-justified reputation as an expensive and exclusive enclave, is a fabulous place to bring up a family. We've had a really great experience with our local schools; the town's culture & recreation department has some superb programming, there are plenty of private-sector clubs and societies for sports, music, performing arts, etc. I love it here; but I've never lived in the Eastern suburbs so can't comment on Whitby, Ajax or Pickering....

dbd33

Leaside is another standard suggestion.

I know someone who lives by the African Lion Society and works at University and College. I think that would be like commuting from Brooklin; car, GO train, subway. He knows how many days it is until his defined benefit pension kicks in the same way a lifer knows how many days it is until the next parole hearing.

BristolUK

I'm surprised at that. Scrub that. Shocked. Or did you mean compared to the west?

When I discovered that we could lose between a third and half Moncton's annual snowfall anywhere between Kingston and Hamilton I started to look at what the places were like and how much the houses were.

Even with the money from a house sale and duplex, I concluded that Oakville was highly unlikely but Cobourg seemed possible for example.

Oakvillian

Oh, there's no denying that house prices in Oakville are stupid, and have got more stupid in the decade since I moved here. But there's a reason for that - a more-or-less sensible council who understand why people would want to live in an outer suburb and plan accordingly.

The reputation for exclusivity is more to do with the very expensive (even by Oakville standards) real estate in the southeast corner of the town - and the fact that there is so much ostentatious display of wealth around the place. But I've never come across any sort of snobbery or dismissive attitude to those of us who live in the not-quite-so-grand bits north of the highway. Then again, I only know a handful of people who live in the seriously posh bit, and I suppose I wouldn't have bothered to get to know them if they came across like Harry Enfield's Loadsamoney...

While it was probably the case a few years ago (and may still be in the older parts of town) that there is less ethnic diversity in Oakville than elsewhere in the GTA, I don't think that's at all the case any more overall. I'm a volunteer coach for the youth house league at the local soccer club - my team this season is as thoroughly multiethnic and culturally diverse as any "yay, Canada, aren't we wonderful" advert could wish it to be

SchnookoLoly

Another Oakville resident chiming in, and I'll echo what Oakvillian has said about the programs and the very competent city council. Having a kid now I've been paying more attention to what programming is offered by the town and it's all fabulous, tons of leagues, tons of facilities, and all exceptionally well maintained. My husband works downtown and is door to desk in under an hour. I grew up in Oakville, moved to London, then moved back with my husband, and we quite like it. Some parts in the southeast can be snobby, but the rest of the town is quite lovely.

Where's HG to weigh in on this as well?

HGerchikov

Sorry, visiting my husband in his cottage in Quebec. Poor Internet service meant somewhat restricted to work related activities only. I agree with Oakvillain too. I actually do live in the posh bit he mentioned, we moved here before it got so expensive and we have an original home in the area (rather than one of the rebuild mega mansions). Most of my neighbours in the older homes have been here for years and are in no way snobby. Just lovely people who are always prepared to offer up their pool on a hot day. I did commute in to Toronto for about 6 years via GO, and depending on the weather walking to Queens Park or using TTC. It was not a problem. I am sure there are spots to the East of Toronto that offer the same. Make sure you are near a station that gets a regular service. Some trains are express and so don't stop at some of the stations on route.

BristolUK

That's definitely worth highlighting.

SchnookoLoly

Link for the OP for GO train schedules: Full Schedules

Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West are the ones that run all day, stopper service every 30 minutes and express trains during peak hours.