karabrittan

My husband, 2 1/2 year old daughter and I are planning a trip to Canada in June with a view to moving out there when my husband gets made redundant next year. We are visiting Nova Scotia and as a comparison we would like to visit either Alberta (Calgary/Edmonton) or Ontario (maybe Ottowa). Would be great to hear from anyone who has moved to either of these places with pros/cons of the area. We currently live in a small town about 40 minutes outside two cities.

Any insight would be great.
Thanks

cheeky_monkey

I live in Edmonton..originally was going to go to NS then decided on Ontario and did live briefly in SW Ontario before ended up here in Alberta.

I never considered Edmonton but ended up here with work and to be honest its an ok place to live it does the job in terms of opportunities and things to do..i would have prefered living close to the states but you cant have everything.

Vbomb

Alberta has really strong growth and is the richest province in terms of income per capita. Lots of people from BC and the Maritimes move to Alberta for work

It is also VERY COLD, -40 C at peak. I had the opportunity to move there with a +20k bump in salary, relocation and promotion in title but refused cause I'm a chicken but if you're cool with that, it's great! I also lived in Ontario for work and personally would pick Ontario/GTA

MarylandNed

Ontario - Kingston.

Novocastrian

Eh?

BTW I don't think this thread is in the right forum. But what do I care?

dbd33

I think it would be a good choice if you're in the business of incarceration. Otherwise, not so much.

TheThornes

We live half an hour/45 minutes from Calgary and love it here. TBH, I haven't been to Ontario, Ottawa etc so can't really comment on how the two compare. We are also about 45 minutes from the mountains too. The -40 odd temperatures mentioned earlier - yes it can get this cold but that certainly isn't the norm and, generally, we don't get as much snow as some other parts of the country. You'll get lots of differing views - everyone likes where they live all for different reasons. You would probably need to visit each to get a feel for them yourself.

mandymoochops

Are you coming on a pr basis, or will you need a job to sponsor you. Inwhich case you'll find most immigrants will go where the prospective work is.

If you tell us what route you are coming in on and what you do it might help with the answers.

Pauline B

hi there,
I have lived in both provinces. I live just north of Toronto and in Toronto itself and then moved to Calgary 12 years ago. Both provinces have pros and cons. Ontario: More traffic, more getting stuck in traffic, higher taxes, could be more job opportunities (depending on what you do for a living). It can get cold and snowy in Ontario - in fact, I think the "snow belt" of Ontario gets way more snow than Calgary. But there are more job opporutnities, more things to do entertainment wise/cultural in a bigger centre in Ontario than Alberta.

Calgary tends to get freezing temps. We do get chinooks, however, which can improve temperatures rapidly in a very short period of time. Also, being near the Rocky Mountains is amazing. If you are an outdoor person, then I recommend Alberta - skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, biking, it goes on. We are close to the BC border also. No sales tax in Alberta and we do tend to "ride the tails" of the oil industry - when oil prices are up times are good, however, when they slump it can hit certain areas hard. Saying that, I think Alberta (Canada in fact) has survived the current economic downturn not too badly compared to other parts of the world. So I would say choose based on your particular lifestyle. I don't think anyone could make a wrong move moving to Canada - beautiful country, nice people, cheaper cost of living.

MarylandNed

Check this out:
http://www.moneysense.ca/2010/04/30/...-to-live-2010/

Kingston is #2 on the list.

dbd33

"We rated cities based on climate, prosperity, access to healthcare, home affordability, crime rates and lifestyle with subcategories in each area."

Not, I suggest, the sort of criteria a prospective immigrant should use.

climate - if this is important don't move to Canada

prosperity - in the case of retirement areas such as Eastbourne, Florida, Kingston and Victoria BC, that's a measure of money earned elsewhere and brought.

access to healthcare - old people, lots of hospitals

home affordability - cheap houses, the usual consequence of no work

crime rates - not much of a factor anywhere in Canada except for a few inner-city areas where immigrants reading this on the internet are not likely to end up

lifestyle - no idea what they're getting at with this, Kingston isn't a good place to be a Hutterite or gay. If you fit the mould of Kingston residents then I suppose it's ideal but that's also true of Brixton.

The criterion for an immigrant should be work. No job = no point in going there.

Oink

Where do you live now?

MarylandNed

So no-one works in Kingston?

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/natio...54376-sun.html

http://business.kingstoncanada.com/e...sp?_mid_=16956

Labour Force
Kingston's labour force is as diverse as its employers. With our enviable lifestyle, lower cost of living compared to larger urban centres and access to premium health care and educational facilities, Kingston is considered a great place to live and work.

Kingston's labour force has drawn national attention over the years as:

The smartest workforce in Canada (Calgary Sun/Stats Canada)
Top city for young, talented workers (Next Cities? Consulting)
Top ten best place to work in Canada with strongest labour force (CanaData)
One of the best places to live in Canada (Moneysense Magazine)
City with one of lowest unemployment rates in province/country (Stats Canada)
According to a recently released Manpower Research Report, Kingston employers report robust hiring intentions for 2010, with a Net Employment Outlook of +33% (compared to 0% provincial Outlook).

dbd33

Considering that the major employer in Kingston is the prison system, I think we can call a potential increase in staffing of one third as a mixed blessing.

ultrarunner

What about CFB Kingston, along with RMC and the sports complex across the street? The thing with Kingston is that it's a "college town" and tourism as well during the summer time. I enjoyed my time in Kingston, decent size city, but don't miss the hwy 2 and hwy 15 traffic at times