I am a police officer in the UK and will be coming to Calgary in either July or October this year for testing with the Calgary Police service.
We would like to hear from anyone who has recently made the move to Calgary from the UK who is willing to share their experiences, both good and bad with us.

We have 2 daughters aged 9 and 7 so tips about schooling and which areas are the best for families would be good.

Thanks.

Gary and Trudi

Hi Gary and Trudi

Not done the CPS thingy but just wanted to wish you luck.

Have you tried the jobs section on here for police - suppose alot of your questions could be answered from there. Go to the front page of the discussion forum and scroll half way down

Gaynor

ps will be about 2 hours south from you in Lethbridge

Hi Gary and Trudi,

Welcome to the forum.

I don't know about the police service, but I do know a fair bit about residential areas and schools. The information on those two topics has been summarised in the aritcles on Calgary and Calgary Schooling in the BE Wiki section.

Oh yes, you'll also want to read the article on Canadian Schooling in the BE Wiki section, as it contains some information that is not covered in the article on Calgary Schooling.

Hope that helps.

Hi Gary and Trudi,

We also on our way to Calgary this summer, hopefully July but house sale is going slow.

I don't know much about the police but we also have a 9 nine year old daughter and have just got back from our research trip, she loved it especially Chuck E Cheese and the mall. We looked at a school in Okotoks called Dr Morris Gibson, its one of the top schools in Alberta and Canada we were all very impressed. We are looking at some of the new areas in the South East of Calgary (Mckenzie Town) or Okotoks or Airdire or Cochrane.

Hope this helps, we are headed the same way so let us know if there is anything else and maybe we'll see you there maybe on the same flight!

Cheers
Jay, Nannette, Tis, and Oreo

Hello

Welcome to the site!

Can't offer much help on CPS, but we too are off to Calgary , hopefully in August! me, OH , 4 1/2 yr old and 2 1/2 year old

Read Judy's wikis as they are a fab starting point!

Gryphea

We have just bought a house in Okotoks and signed our boys up at Dr Morris Gibson, so our nine year old son might be in the same class as your nine year old daughter if you move there!! We move in mid-July.

PS Where is Chuck E Cheese? We went to one of those in America when we visited our friends there and the kids loved it, but we never saw one in Calgary.

Lisa

Hi Lisa

Chuck E Cheese

Its by the Sunridge Mall, take the Deerfoot North to 32nd Ave NE turn right cross Barlow Trail past Mazda garage and look to KFC turn right and C.Cheese is opposite Roneta just past Future Shop take a left into the mall. We found from the web site.

Great Fun!

Cheers
Jay

Thanks Jay

I will add this to my list of "Calgary highlights" for when we move over !!!

Lisa

Hi Gary & Trudi,

We visited Calgary last year and (as a former police officer) made contact with the CPS - just to see what opportunities are there. To say that they were a friendly and helpful bunch would be an understatement.
For now, we have decided not to go down that route.

However, welcome to the show and the very best of luck with your application and testing.

Simon & Laura

Hi there.We are in the NW of Calgary and love it.Schools have been really good so far and we had no end of advice from people on the forum so Good luck with you move and welcome

Mandi

Just wanted to say hello and welcome to the BE mad house.

Good luck with the testing and I hope everything works out for you.

Thanks very much to everyone that replied to us..

Can i ask that if anyone is in Calgary and wouldn't mind giving us some figures for cost of living such as insurances, utility bills etc..etc then we would be really grateful.

Also if anyone is on the $71000 constable salary (as i've been told i will be if successful) and wouldn't mind telling me what their take home pay is, that would really help too.. i can't seem to fing much out about stoppages. I have been told that some take home about $1400 every 2 weeks, but i have worked it out that $71k less pension (10.01%) and tax would leave about $1900 every 2 weeks. Can anyone assist with this.. i dont want to come and be a pauper.. i can do that in Wolverhampton!!


Cheers.

I would guess that take home might be in the range of $1800 every two weeks, but others who are currently working might be able to answer this a little better than me. I'm retired and don't have too many deductions any more.

Try reposting this in the Canada Forum you might get a better response.


As for monthly living costs here's some of ours. It's for two of us in an average 35 year old home for the last twelve months averaged monthly.

property tax $170
house insurance $45
electricity $45
water/sewer $50
TV/internet $100
gas (heat and cooking) $145
car insurance $185/2 cars
transit pass $75/person
phone $40 Land line only including long distance (we don't make a lot of calls). No cell phones.


Cheers
Steve

Hello,

My husband has just had the verbal job offer with the CPS ( pack is on its way!). we have 2 boys ages 10 and 8 years. We are in the process of organising another fact find trip in the next month to concentrate on school visits. we are looking at living in the Bragg Creek, Millerville, Priddis area and just from last week i have added Okotoks in the option too. We all spent 2 weeks in Calgary in February for my husband to go through the whole recruitment process ( we went to London in October for him to do the initial 2 written tests and for the information session) we just had the verbal offer on the 10 th May. If you have specific questions feel free to ask on what we know so far.....
regards, Tina

Tina - Hi - just wanted to say congrats to hubby - another one on their way!