Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Hi. We are considering Alberta as our location due to work for my husband (carpenter).

I will be honest, I have never been to Canada (US, yes) but husband has. So I don't know much apart from the masses of reading I have done.

I know very little to nothing about Alberta however, and as it is the most likely place for us to live I would like to find out as much as possible about it from people currently living there (again, I prefer to find out actual honest info rather that what google offers).

Some of my worries are boredom (which I have seen written a couple of times about other parts of Canada), and safety (which I have asked as a whole rather than specific regions) and just life in general, the surroundings etc - the good the bad and the ugly.

I'm hoping you all say you love it but I'm prepared for the less positive too :D

Thanks

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

We emigrate to Alberta from the UK in a week's time. We've only been on one recce trip to Canada, and it was to Toronto and the surrounding areas. My husband is a Software Development Manager and we are lucky enough to have contract work from his employer in the UK, for as long as we need it in Canada. Trying to get a job in Canada, whilst still having a UK address proved impossible. Lots of jobs and lots of interest, but no bites.

We picked Alberta for very fickle reasons really i.e. low taxation etc... as we have sold everything in the UK and have just packed our life into 11 suitcases. We figured that if we are starting a new life in a new country, our savings would take less of a battering in Alberta. We are probably being naive, but with an entire country to choose from, it seems as good a reason as any.

We have two young children, 7 and 11 and want to give them a better life. There's nothing left for them in the UK. Fed up of litter, dog crap, being overly taxed, class-sizes that are forced to go over the legal maximum etc... We are being increasingly squashed into a small island, with more pressure added all of the time. It's a pressure cooker just waiting to explode.

We are hoping to settle in Okotoks, 11 miles out of Calgary as it seems a comparable size to the town we currently live in, in the UK. We are aware that Canada has plenty of problems too, but the UK has gone down the pan. Whatever Canada throws at us, it can't be any worse than the UK.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Hi
Alberta a pretty BIG place, Edmonton & Calgary are the major cities where more work will be available but some some smaller towns offers good employment/lifestyle options as well. Cost of living in particular housing costs is in the larger cities can be expensive and affordable housing is not easy to find. I'd advise maybe do a reccie and checkout several areas.


All the best.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

There are literally dozens if not hundreds of threads about different Provinces and major cities, asking "what's it like".

Perhaps read a few of those first, then post any further questions you have about a specific area.

:)

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

We came over last April with $3500 in my pocket,the first year was tough,but easier than we had expected it to be.
As posted above some of it can be expensive,and housing can be hard to get,especially if you have a dog(we got lucky I guess).
Our rent costs $1400 per month for a 3 bedroom main floor just to give you an idea.
There is plenty to do nearby,but that all depends on what you like to do,if you are sit in the pub people it can be very expensive,a lot of the guys I work with are Irish and tend to drink a lot,especially the younger guys they can easily blow their wages in the pubs.
For shopping it pays to shop around,some places can be way more expensive than others.
Eating out is not too bad,for example it cost us $103 including a 10% tip for the 5 of us to eat at Montanas steak house(we ate well!)

We jumped in and committed ourselves to Canada,but again as posted above a reccie trip is a good idea as it is not for everyone.
We love it here,and are glad we took the plunge,but again there are a lot of posts from people that don't.

We have 3 young daughters 9 years,almost 8 years,and 6 years,plus an almost year old border collie that we brought with us.

Good luck whatever you decide!

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Okotoks, good choice IMO, I don't know if you've been there yet ??
I live in the next town south and Okotoks is where we go shopping.
A very nice town with most things you need at hand, shoppingwise.
You probably know the following already but it has a population of around 30,000 and expanding rapidly.
For entertainment you have swimming pools, rodeo grounds, baseball stadium, bowling alley, cinema, a couple of English pubs. etc.
It may be 11 miles to the very southern tip of Calgary but it is about 25 miles to downtown, about a 45 min drive, outside of rush hour and a 40 min drive to the airport.
All the best.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

What about the finest universities in the world, the world class art and culture, the architecture, the amazing restaurants, the rich tradition of intellectual debate and conversation all that and the cultural bounty of European neighbours? Has it really gone down the pan?

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

You don't think you will see litter and dog crap???:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:: rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

We've been in Red Deer for 9 years this year, it's a lovely little city and Central Alberta is gorgeous. We thank our lucky stars life landed us here BUT we are ready to move on, it's not our forever home, boredom and length of winter are the major factors.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

If it was really for the kids, wouldn't the thousands of pounds it'll cost to emigrate be better spent sending them to a top independent school in the UK? I'd say it would give them a far better chance at a successful and fulfilling life than moving to rural Alberta.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Thank you all for your input and views. Sorry, I didn't think to search for similar threads but I guess these replies are nice and fresh :)
Really appreciate it and it is all food for thought

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Or just moving to another part of the UK. Moving to Canada's not going to help with the dog poo, litter or tax rates (or class sizes imo - double the class sizes in Vancouver than we have here, my daughter's in a class of 14!).

Would save £25k or so as well. :lol:

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

If you have the itch to emigrate, it's a good idea to give it a try- live life without regrets, etc.

But once you're here and the novelty has worn off, you'd be amazed at the number of people who are considering moving back/somewhere else.

Move here for the opportunity to earn some decent money, or for the skiing, or to be close to family or whatever. But dont move here to avoid the UK's problems, as it has more than enough of it's own to compensate.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

You forgot the rivers of blood.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Whenever I read about somebody interesting in moving to Alberta (or Saskatchewan, or Manitoba), I always wonder if they have any sense of the province's geography, or climate, or growing season, or even the kinds of plants that naturally grow there? Does this factor into your decision at all? Apart from the Rocky Mountains which flank Alberta's extreme western border, Alberta's located in Canada's Prairies, which are somewhat similar to the Russian steppes. What would you think if somebody was asking about living in the Russian steppes, without actually having visited? This is the Canadian equivalent to where you're moving to. British expats used to seashores, greenery, and quaint rural villages will be in for a big surprise.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

All we knew (from our recce) was how stunning it looked in June, the wide open spaces, the big blue sky and the miles of empty roads, we knew it got cold and snowy. It didn't enter our brains, the growing season, plant variety or how tedious those long empty roads and wide open spaces could be. We also didn't have internet at home before we moved, sometines thats a blessing, sometimes not;)

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

I thought I'd get some flack. My reasons for moving are somewhat shallow and naive - I know this. Alberta, or indeed Canada may not end up our 'forever home' , but for now it's a break from the pressure cooker that is now the UK. Much has changed in just a few short years. Yes, there are the world-class universities, culture, arts etc... in the UK, but who can afford to visit/use them? We are currently playing 40% income tax and 20% VAT. We have good salaries, but are not living as comfortably as we should be, or indeed once were. I appreciate that there are a lot of people worse off but...

I know the streets of Canada are not paved with gold, and I also understand that it will have plenty of its own issues, but I'm not alone in wanting out of the UK. The past 5 years of so, have been too much for most, and it is only going to get worse. The UK came bottom out of all of the rest of Europe for standard of living and quality of life.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

If you are paying 40% income tax in the UK, you will be close to that in Alberta (39% is the top tax rate, 36% kicks in somewhere around $90k), and while GST may be 5% rather than 20%, the dramatically lower population density and so increased cost of transporting everything further makes the stuff you buy more expensive. I reckon cost of living is about the same when everything is combined, so just depends whether your salary will be higher here or not...

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

To be fair there - I couldn't believe how much dog shit and litter were around the streets when I was back in the summer compared to here - hardly ever see a dog crap on the pavement here but back in Scotland the kids were doing a "miss the dog shit hop" every day and that's in a supposedly posh town :D

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Justcwalk any of the trails this time of year in RD and you'll play the same game, Sylvan kakeshore is worse, we hardly ever walk the dogs there anymore.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

[QUOTE=Donnykins;11237180]I know the streets of Canada are not paved with gold,QUOTE]
One British immigrant, having heard that, was walking the streets of his new home hours after getting through customs and saw a $10 bill laying on the sidewalk. He bent halfway over to pick it up then changed his mind and walked on, thinking "Why should I work on my first day?"

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

I keep typing out long rambling replies, which make it clear to me that I am done with living in AB after 8 years here. I'll just break it down to bullet points on the reasons why:
Hate being land locked.
Hate how crowded it is here, but can't escape and live rurally as need to work in one of the larger cities to earn decent money to live off of.
The stupidly high cost of air travel meaning I no longer fly anywhere.
The amount of time it takes to get anywhere in this province.
Not being able to afford some prescriptions due their cost and having no employer insurance (over $1300 every 90 days for a shot and pills!).
Discovering I suffer from altitude sickness, which is just peachy when you are sat at 3438ft above sea level just in Calgary.
Chinook migraines.
Winters that are at least 4 months too long.

I did like it here initially, but doubts crept in after only 6 months. Homesickness has hit me very hard at times, but I stuck it out and am now a citizen so can come and go as I please. Good possibility of a move to Ontario one day as that is where my boyfriend is from and that would be to a small town on a lake which sounds much more appealing.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Your reasons sound perfectly valid to me, Oink doesn't live in Alberta or the UK. There are various reasons I couldn't stand living in the UK but if I were to list them it does boil down to it being too crowded. And absolutely taxes are significantly lower in Alberta, no question about it, another reason I live here.

The schools here have the reputation of being the best in the English-speaking world although I'm not sure I entirely agree on that point.

The one point that Oink made in another thread and which I do think a lot of people do underestimate is the weather - as I fathomed in another thread recently - Minneapolis, 156 days a year with temperatures below freezing, 12 days with temperatures above 30 C. Calgary, 190 days a year with temperatures below freezing, 4 days with temperatures above 30 C.

Winter is the default weather. Often I speak to recent arrivals who complain about (for example) the lack of trees, not being able to see road markings, etc. Well it doesn't matter, because most of the time the whole place is covered with ice.

And yes Calgary may be dull, and that imo is another excellent reason to live here, places tend to be dull when they don't have many problems. Dull is underrated. Dull means less stress.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Crowded? It has one of the lowest population densities of any metropolitan area in the world. I don't think that's an Alberta problem, that's the specific place you live in.

Haven't you got ABC? $25 max. per prescription. Or is this something that isn't covered?

Mmm, I did have that problem myself to begin with, the one thing that annoys me is that it takes longer to think.

Doesn't that contradict your first point?

But yeah, it's not Europe. It is isolated and it is freaking cold.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

I strongly disagree on this point, 40% tax bracket in the UK starts at £41,500, in Alberta that's $75,000 roughly which would put you in the 32% bracket. And the difference in GST and VAT adds up very quickly. You've got to be earning over $136,000 to be in the 39% tax bracket, so the more you earn up to that, you will save even more money. And - the most important point - payroll taxes here are a joke compared to NI in the UK. At £41,500 you are paying 12% (minus the lower income limit threshold, which is around £5,500) in NI, as compared to CPP and EI at 4.95% and the ceiling for that is $52,000 roughly and then you pay nothing further - in the UK if you earn more you pay even more! 14%!

And look at other things, no TV licence fee, the car registration is $80 per year, what does a tax disc go for now?

Also utilities are way lower here than in the UK (worked it out in another thread the other day that it was less than half in terms of cost, although you use more but it still works out cheaper). Yes, you use more fuel in your car but that depends on your circumstances and it is way cheaper.

The only one where people generally agree it is more expensive is car insurance, but personally I find it is only slightly more expensive.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

When we were contemplating where to move to the main things that put us off Alberta were:

It really is COLD for a lot of the time compared to what we were used to. Each season should last for one quarter of the year (ish). I watch the weather network and the differences in temperatures and snowfall between Alberta and where we are on the Island is night and day!

The other thing that put us off was the landlocked vastness of the place. It takes FOREVER to get to somewhere else. Even then it invariably looks like wherever you've just left!

Don't get me wrong, there are some beautiful areas and places, but we just felt that the sense of isolation outweighed the undoubted opportunities that Calgary/Alberta offer.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

UK road tax rates are based on carbon dioxide emissions. Just a little snippet I found interesting when my brother told me how low his was.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

But there's hardly any traffic outside of town, so it's not like driving in Europe. Yes it is a long and boring drive to say, Regina but personally I don't feel as stressed as I would driving 100 miles in Europe.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Looking on the website: https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables anything from D upwards is more expensive than here, and that includes the vast majority of passenger vehicles it appears. God knows what an F-350 would cost in the UK. :lol:

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Burn Baby Burn.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Actually that's a fair point! The open roads through some stunning scenery are/can be very beautiful. I think for us it was the sense of the enormity of the province and the distances involved. I suppose the diversity that the UK offers by comparison is unusual in a geographic sense. In a fraction of the space you can have the Pennines, the Norfolk Broads, South Downs, big cities, Brighton Beach, the New Forest. Only trouble is they're all so bloody busy!

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Wonder what it would be on a CAT 797. :eek:

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

I would much rather drive from here to Lethbridge, say, than drive from Sidney to Victoria down Hwy 17 during rush hour. One day they will discover these things called: "flyovers".

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

It does get busy down there in the morning. Mind you it's all relative. I still recall the hours wasted on UK motorways, or the South Circular!

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

It includes the vast majority of *old* vehicles. Most produced now or in recent years, including popular models such as the VW Golf or Ford Fiesta, are tax free.

I think it's worth pointing out to the OP that you seem to be the only person on the forum that thinks it's cheaper in Alberta than the UK. Most agree that the cost of living is around the same.

Recent discussions from those who've lived in both seem to think that GST may be cheaper, but then it's paid on everything unlike VAT, utility bills may be cheaper but food bills are generally more, children's activities cost more, etc, so it evens out at about the same.

HTH.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

Didn't really explain that point very well did I? I feel Calgary is quite crowded, one of the reasons I chose to live in Airdrie and thankfully I work in Airdrie now too so I avoid commuting. Commuting was not something I had to do in the UK either, so was a culture shock for sure. I know lots of people say they are moving here for more space, but that won't really be achieved by moving to a city, I feel just as on top of my neighbours in my detached house here as I did in my terraced place in the UK.


ABC wouldn't cover it as a pre existing condition. I have to pay a rated premium with them because of it too. My new employee benefits kick in next month though so will take care of that.


Not a problem I realized I had until my first visit here and I am amazed how much it still effects me when trying to do certain things. I learned to dance growing up, but can't spin once here without getting lightheaded. If I try to push myself too hard at the gym I go white as a sheet and almost faint. In the mountains I can't hike or go too high as I just can't breathe and feel very lightheaded.


It does contradict it a bit, yes. Traffic within Calgary can add to travel times, but it also feels like it takes forever to get from one end to the other any way. Everything outside of those main urban areas seems to take forever to get to as well. So, while Alberta in general is not crowded, the area I have to be in right now feels to me like it is.

Ask me this question again in July/August and I will probably give different answers. March/April are my bad months and everything I can live with during the summer is just heightened right now as I wait for winter to finally do one and summer to arrive.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

I pointed out upthread the tax calculation, not only are income taxes lower but payroll taxes are WAY lower, and GST and VAT are pretty much assessed the same way, the CRA even copied the HMRC VAT manual as far as I can tell. Being a person who has collected both I can't say I've ever noticed any major difference on what it is collected on. Please enlighten me. The only thing I can think of off-hand is on new houses and there is a rebate available for that (so it ends up being similar to stamp duty). Common groceries are zero-rated just like they are in the UK.

It's just factually wrong in a major way to say taxes are even remotely comparable to anything in the UK. Yet another example - no inheritance or gift tax. Capital gains tax in the UK is 28% - here it is 50% of the income tax rate, so in Alberta the maximum rate is 19.5%.

Cost of living I suppose depends on how you live, but certain things are certainly a lot less like gas, natural gas and electricity.

My property tax is about the same and my house is twice the size.

There are things where you can say they're more expensive, e.g. you basically have to have cable or satellite TV here as there are only 4 OTA channels whereas in the UK you could manage with OTA. Car insurance is more expensive. Kid's activities depend on what your kids do (if you have them). Used cars are more expensive because of the demand in Calgary.

Certain grocery items are more expensive but imx based on what people have said on here I think sometimes it's also to do with a lack of familiarity with where to shop to get the best price. People in the UK I think are more familiar with these mega Tesco stores where you can get everything in one go or shopping on-line, here you have to hunt around a bit more, imo. Shopper's Drug Mart, Rexall's and Sobey's for example are pretty pricey. Loblaw's is usually the least pricey.

Anyway I worked it out multiple times when I first moved to Calgary and I was saving substantial amounts. I honestly don't understand how people say the cost of living is roughly the same, that hasn't been my experience at all. Just on the taxes you should end up better off.

Plus another advantage we've got is that in Montana there is no sales tax. And Alberta residents are exempt from Washington State sales tax too.

When I played around with it yesterday, the cars that seemed to be lower were things like a 1 litre Ford Fiesta. Okay if you drive a small compact car in the UK you might get a tax disc for less than the registration fee here, I'll give you that. But if you drive a pickup truck or an SUV, forget it.

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

I know we're in BC, not Alberta, but I think our cost of living to quality/standard of living is lower. Our property tax here is half our council tax (granted we were in Borough of Richmond, London) for a house more than twice the size and land that is imeasurably bigger. I think that because we have the space for storage we buy very much in bulk. It would be unheard of for us to have less than 10 rolls of kitchen paper in the store closet. I think we run at an average float of c50 toilet rolls at any one time. Gas is certainly cheaper. Also, ever since we invested in a fancy new efficient wood burning insert, we have bought $500 worth of furnace oil this winter and still have some left. We are burning the same number of chords of wood as we have in previous winters.

So I agree with Steve; from my experience, with not road fund licence, no MOT, cheaper gas, the majoy thing cost-wise that's different for us negatively is the car insurance.

Cheese is rubbish though....

Re: Alberta residents - can I pick your brains please?
 

This is a silly argument. I would say taxes are lower here, but cost of living is considerably higher.
The common response on here about salaries etc is that you pretty much need to have a joint income of $100k minimum to be comfortable.


I would imagine most people in the UK have an income of much less than that, yet live more comfortably than they would here on the same money.