canadian_bacon_boy

They are last options and to be honest the religious stuff is not an issue for us as we were both raised catholics but have since lapsed. I take it work wise is thin on the grown in these areas for corporate type management?

canadian_bacon_boy

Because we hate cities and while Vancouver (downtown) was the exception to this rule we would not like to live too near to the downtown area.

I will try to talk to everyone I can and luckily the Canadians are very friendly, but are there places I can go to find out more?

canadian_bacon_boy

Port hammond is just a small bit of Maple Ridge. Why wouldn't you live in maple ridge or pitt meadows? It is only a 50min skytrain to downtown.

dbd33

That sounds like a lot of money for a city in which people are generally not well paid. If you can get it then good luck to you.

Veterinary care, that is working in a vet's but not being a vet, is a minimum wage job. One would have to take a course to get started, I'm not sure what course but suppose vet tech is two years at a community college, say $10,000. One would have to get to work, quite possibly needing a car and one might have to pay for clothing and/or cleaning thereof. At $10 an hour I think one would struggle to generate enough income to pay off the loan for the course. If the course and/or working entails paying for childcare then financially the idea makes no sense, if it doesn't then it's marginal. There may, of course, be other reasons to do it, if the income from the accounting firm makes it feasible.

Alan2005

I live in Maple Ridge:

Pros: Pretty country side, relatively affordable, peace and quiet, acreages with proper internet (I could have 100Mb), not full of wannabes like in Vancouver, normalish people, relatively friendly.

Cons: Car necessary, no bin men (at least east of 256th), ugly looking town centre, grow-ops, arsehole drivers in trucks.

It took me an hour to get downtown this morning. If I had to be in Vancouver everyday living here would not be possible (for me at least). I live east of MR town centre though, on the other side (near Pitt Meadows) the commute would be a lot better.

dboy

check out Fort Langley....pretty small town, semi rural on the river, but only 5mins or so drive to hwy 1. Not sure on house prices, cheaper than port moody though I would think.

I agree with Brizzles views on the tri cities.....dumpy palces car/ mall centric towns with the usual chain stores and no soul.

JonboyE

These kind of surveys ignore the easy access to the wilderness, the sea and the mountains. The relaxed, multicultural, easy lifestyle. The sheer beauty of the place. If these matter to you then they count for far more than a few points on a quality of life survey. If they don't matter to you then you might start wondering why you are paying $850,000 for a standard Canadian house.

Actually, a couple of thousand miles away.

Wages in the downtown business district are a lot higher than the rest of Vancouver. For a manager level role in a big four firm the range the OP quotes seems quite reasonable.

Yes, don't forget to look south of the river. Of the listed options I would go for Port Moody. However, there are many communities south of the river I would chose above any of the places the OP listed.

dboy

keep toying with the idea of white rock...but the mrs works downtown. I actually find it affordable (relatively speaking) after living in both vancouver and on the north shore.

I think we may end up there eventually, in say the next 3 years or so. I am hopeful the mrs can go down to a 4 day week which will make the commute easier to swallow.

Alan2005

That would depend on what the OP means by IT management. For many roles mid 90's would be the upper end.

dbd33

But with some experience of the business in question, a small market in Canada. I think the numbers are optimistic but, again, if he can get that money, good luck to him.

JonboyE

Granted, though the salary Alan2005 mentioned is in the range the OP is expecting.

Although Vancouver has a reputation of being a lower wage city than Toronto (and probably deservedly so) there is a concentrated area in the downtown business district where the high flying businesses are located. And, consequently, the expensive service providers.

I know more about accounting salaries than IT but I know that an accounting role that would pay $70k in a suburban industrial area, or $80k in the rest of Vancouver would pay $125k at Burrard and Pender.

brizzle

Probably because housing affordability and low wages drag the ratings down, compared to other places in Canada.

The views of the mountains may be good, but the area itself isn't particularly picturesque IMO (railway yards/highways/box stores etc) and some parts have a run-down feel. The actual downtown part isn't too bad, but Poco just seems to have a higher proportion of yahoo's/homeless than other areas. It's the cheapest part of the tri-cities and generally there is a reason for that.

No skytrain out there. It's the West Coast Express. Limited commuter rail service. Seems a bit pricy and surprisingly few trains.

http://www.westcoastexpress.com/sche...ageID=SCHEDULE

I would think that an hour would be a good run wouldn't it? Was this at peak commuter time?

To the OP, don't overlook the work aspect. Have you got any leads for work? Your research may have revealed those salary scales, which might be possible, but you actually have to secure that job with that salary. It might be easier said than done. Just don't take it as a done deal (unless you currently have a job offer written in blood).

Alan2005

I have a desk in an office in that area of Vancouver (for a few more months at least). They develop software and such and the IT managers in the office earn up to about $90k; that's QA managers, dev managers etc who typically have teams of 5 to 10 people and have good domain knowledge. "IT manager" in the sense of somebody who runs a department responsible for the companies IT systems (networks, telephones, pc support etc) doesn't exist in this office so I don't know how much they would roughly make.

Obviously my sample size is one, but I've been told that these are the near the ends of the curve for the specific roles by people that should know. In UK terms I don't think these are bad salaries at all - $90k is something like £55k; which is well above what most people can expect to earn.

ExKiwilass

That's about 25 minutes too long for me.

ps. it's the West Coast express not skytrain. It's kinda limited in when it goes and where it goes.

Alan2005

It's a shit service.

It's stupid cos there are the tracks and the trains and a city that wants people to use public transport but they ignore this rather obvious avenue of expansion.

A study said it wasn't viable, probably due due to kick backs from the companies who will develop the evergreen line not wanting anyone to consider cheaper alternatives. Local governments are always corrupt like this - no exceptions.