Hi. After several months of looking at the Australia forum I have decided it's not for me. I have done some research on Canada and have done some searches on this forum and I think canada could be the place for me. I am a 32 year old psych nurse and my husband is a 38 year old gas fitter/heating engineer. We have 2 children aged 4 and nearly 2. My reason for wanting to emigrate is not because I hate England - I don't hate it I can think of loads of good things. I have two reasons for wanting to emigrate
(1) For the adventure and life experience
(2) I would love for my family to have a more outdoorsy life . I feel the amount of rain we have here prevents this as does the lack of organised activities.
I have some questions and wonder if anyone can help.
Would my husband be able to find work as a heating engineer and if so what would the salary be like realistically?
I currently work part time as a nurse, is part time work easy to find / acceptable in Canada?
Do you think that on the whole Canada is a better place for the average family to live? I know this last one is hard to measure but I am thinking in terms of schooling for kids, outdoor activities, etc.
Any help or advice appreciated.

If you are not going to let the kids out in the rain, how are you going to feel about a canadian winter coastal BC has a milder winter, but it rains there more than in the UK.

The general answer to your question is Canada is great for kids, lots of space, lots of organised activities, as long as you dont mind driving them about. The adventure aspect wares off after a while though as reality of lower salary and less holiday kicks in. Salary is enough to live comfortably in Canada, but converting to pounds for trips back to the UK is a nasty shock.

Salary info can be found on a few websites. www.2ontario.com I think has some info hidden in the community profiles, or the HRDC has salary info by regions too. You will both almost certainly have to get re certified in your field, and "Canadian experience" is the big trap for most newcommers seeking work.

Schooling in canada is a little different to the UK, and most UK kids are a bit ahead academically, but Canadian schools seem to produce more well rounded productive future adults IMO. As in the Uk it can vary from school to school, but Canada in general has a good education system, and does well in international literacy / numeracy comparisons.

Nothing wrong with part time work, but the downside is it seldom has health benefits.

Good Luck, whatever you decide

Iain

[QUOTE=jugsy](1) For the adventure and life experience[/MORE]
Emigration will give you that ... so will a vacation and it will cost you a lot less

As Iaink pointed out it rains more in BC that it does in the wettest parts of the UK.

Right now it's -6C and snowing Calgary ... we'll alternate between snow falling and snow melting chinooks, with temperatures roughly somewhere between -20C and +20C right through to next June ... Alberta weather is very unpredictable.

The prairies have a similar long winter, without the chinooks to melt the snow ... depends on how you feel about six months of snow.

If you don't like rough weather ... look east.

On the plus side there are lots of organised activites for kids ... seven months of hockey ... baseball in the snow ... soccer in the snow.

From an “outdoorsy� perspective…

I love to climb mountains, walk, hike, camp, Ski and fly my paraglider..

If your not already doing the outdoorsy thing in the UK where getting to the countryside is easier.. why do you think Canada will be better??
Here we have less rights of access than the UK. In fact we have virtually no right of access any where..
I will say that the conservation areas are good but you have to pay! And often they’re not all open all year round.. and activities are restricted.
Weather wise it may be drier in the summer it gets much hotter than the UK…some times too hot with the humidex. And the winter is great for the outdoors.. only and I mean only if you can hack the cold..
Plus the wildlife bites… be that mosquitoes, raccoons, skunks.. or even bears..

In reality very few Canadian’s are what I would call a “True Outdoors� type person..

However if your Idea of “Outdoorsy� is a nice campsite with a barbeque and a beach or a lake…. Then this really is the Canadian way… and you’ll fit right in…

If you dont count the millions of acres of crown land! Less than 10% of Canada is privately owned.

Many canadians idea of outdoorsy activities involve hunting the various creatures that live in the woods...deer, moose, turkeys etc all have there season, not to mention fishing.

That's why we have big freezers over here

Alberta and Saskatchewan have excellent provincial parks ... you pay to camp, but it doesn't cost to get into them ... one of the reasons I prefer Kanaskis country to Banff.

We tried tent camping over the summer ... most Canadians "camp" in a honking great RV ... getting outdoors involves watching hockey on TV under an awning on the campsite ... roughing it translates as having to drive 3 miles to the nearest McDonalds & Tim Hortons. If it doesn't have aircon in summer and heating in winter, they just can't cope.

Personally I like the winter is the best season to live in the city ... our house backs on to a huge park ... it's virtually deserted for 8 months of the year.

Hi
I've recently seen some job advertisements for a gas fitter and the salary was about $24k a year. Nurses are always in great demand, especially in B.C.
I live in Kelowna, B.C. and the weather is great, best summers ever, starting early June and lasting 'till mid October. It doesn't rain profusely either. The winters are mild especially in comparison to the Eastern side. We didn't even have snow on Xmas day last year!!. Plenty of snow for skiing though.

There is always plenty to do for all ages and levels. I think this is the best country in the world for raising a family, so many opportunities for them.

Cheers

Chrissy

Don't forget that UK nurses have to practically requalify here to be able to work - factor that non-working, course fee paying time into the equation. Gas Fitters also need a "ticket" in the province they are working in and some provinces (like BC) insist you do a bunch of courses to "prove" you know what you are talking about. Beware!

[QUOTE=MikeUK]From an “outdoorsy� perspective…



If your not already doing the outdoorsy thing in the UK where getting to the countryside is easier.. why do you think Canada will be better??


Two reasons really;
(1) It's so damp here a lot of the time. I love bright, cold sunshiney days where you can wrap up against the cold and the walk is invigorating but these days are few and far between. Most of the year here it is damp and grey with varying temperatures. This summer was a complete wash out with very few decent days and certainly no decent run of good weather. In July we planned a day trip to the cotswolds and it poured down all day.

(2) I live in the suburbs of Birmingham and there are not that many nice places to go. We have looked into moving out into the country but it is too expensive and we would end up living in a shoe box.

It's certainly drier in Canada ... you can watch the moisture crystallise out of the air on cold days.

Have you been for a visit in winter yet?

The lowest recorded UK temperature was -26.1 °C at Newport (Shropshire) on 10 January 1982 ... I remember it getting down to something like -13C in Glasgow around the same ... the city came to a standstill.

I don't think -26C is really cold anymore ... apart from BC, most of Canada gets very cold in winter.

It was the same across Canada ... this summer has set records for rainfall.

You might not find it that different here ... Canada is very spread out ... quaint little towns that are with commuting distance of big cities are very expensive.

Before you start planning, come to Canada for a visit.

I am aware of the requalifications needed but it isn't always set in stone that this is the case. My husband worked for British Airways in the U.K. for 28 years as an engineer. When he applied for a job with Air Canada in Calgary, his details were submitted to the governing board along with a letter from his future Canadian employer stating that although the job had been advertised, no-one met the criteria and therefore wanted my husband as he was the most suitable candidate. No exams or requalifying. If you can get your future employer to help you out with the board it carries a lot of weight.
I have known many immigrants that have been helped this way.

With regard to taking a further exam to satisfy the Canadain standards, I agree is a pain, but just think of it as updating your skills.

Thanks for your reply Chrissy it has been helpful and informative. There has been negativity in some of the replies and I'm wondering why that is? To the people who rerplied - are you happy in Canada? What made you decide to go there? At the moment I am fact finding. I haven't started the immigration process and I wouldn't dream of emigrating without visiting first. I'm just trying to get a feel for things.

Just in case you took any of my replies as negative ...

It's a fantastic country, the best place I've ever lived.

We'd had enough of the UK ... looked at the globe and by a process of elimination, picked Canada ... I came across for a visit, then another visit with the family and we decided we had a great future here.

You'd be surprised how many people emigrate with no experience of the country.

Good idea ...

Most of the replies you got were people trying to be honest about life over here.

Getting a job in Canada can be a huge challenge ... you may have to sit exams, there may be a hurdle due to lack of Canadian experience ... I've met people who've landed who were blindly unaware of both.

The weather and wide open spaces are another issue ... most Canadian cities have greater extremese of weather than UK cities ... Vancouver is wetter than the wettest bits of the UK ... Calgary has erratic weather ... the prairies are cold in winter, baking hot in summer ... the east side of the country is probably the most predictable weatherwise, but it still gets hotter and colder than anywhere in the UK.

A lot of people seem to expect Canada to be a Utopian paradise ... it's a country just like any other, with the same issues that you get in every other country ... but, depending where you live, they might happen at a lower rate. A lot of things people come here to get away from are waiting for them when they get here.

I agree there does seem to be a lot of negativity from some of the replies,maybe they are just homesick!!
I absolutely love it here and wouldn't go back to the U.K. if you paid me. Don't get me wrong I still love to go back and visit and do miss a lot of the familiar things I grew up with, but the Canadian way of life certainly compensates for all of that.
I decided to come to Canada to get a better quality of life for me and my children and thankfully that happened.
It took me quite a while to make the decision to uproot and did a lot of research like you are doing now, so have a lot of information at my disposal. If you need any further help I will help all I can.

Chrissy

Very happy here , but its not for everyone, and you need to think of the downside to life here as well as the positive. You may percieve it as negative, but its really just realistic. After 6+ years here the rose tinted glasses are long since been discarded.

FWIW I was happy in the UK until I was headhunted by a canadian employer. I didnt realise how miserable the UK was until I'd seen something better.