dboy

Very true. Law enforcement is higher as is nursing. Not sure about other industries. I also have no idea of the cost of living in OZ. I believe Vancouver is comparable to Sydney. Although housing has only just started to come down in value here, everywhere else in the world has seen real estate sliding for some time.

cdnexpat

Cost of living too is variable depending on where you live in either country.

Some things (video games, Mangoes (but depends on which part of the country), low end broadband are more expensive in Oz. However other things (electricity, water, energy expenses in general, housing (though variable), certain types of food, highend broadband, intra country flights) tend to be cheaper.

In terms of Petrol being more expensive in Oz, I hear this from a lot of uninformed Canadians. The lowest Octane in Oz is 91 grade, whereas in Ontario it's 87. So to really compare Petrol/Gas prices you have to compare the price of 91 grade (premium) in Canada with the standard grade in Oz.

ExKiwilass

I think it's hard to compare. There are differences between provinces in terms of pay, benefits, etc.

I'd say if you were able to get a permanent job in OZ with holidays that would be true. Not everyone is, though. As I'm sure you know, they're quite fond of the casual workforce down there. Casuals have eff-all rights, or holidays.

cdnexpat

More important then the pay in the above professions (Law enforcement/Nursing) is the way the leave time works

- What you were talking about before (vacation in lieu of overtime) is called 'flex-time' and is very common. People I know have used that to increase vacation time to over 8 weeks

- Public holidays in general tend to be more, with Tasmania having about 21 days in a year. Including some pretty crazy ones like "easter tuesday"

- Fatigue leave in some professions that is seperate to sick leave/holidays

- Protection from working more then 10 hour shifts in the health care profession

- I'd say that there is a greater focus on lifestyle in Oz then in Canada

cdnexpat

As for casuals, that's true but really that's no difference then the person who serves you at a fast food restaurant or the people who work to keep your wal-mart prices low.

Canada is also fond of part timers.

In terms of the intra-provincial differences the same is true for Oz. In general for many professions though pay/working conditions are better in Oz.

dboy

21 days! Holy shit - ok lets start a letter writing campaign and get Ottawa to institute a new national holiday: "BE week"

cdnexpat

Sure - and we'll make sure they include "easter tuesday" LOL

ExKiwilass

oh come oooon, cdnexpat. Housing is NOT always cheaper in OZ. really? care to compare Sydney to Halifax?

You're taking generalisations to the extreme imo. It's like me saying "Housing is expensive in Canada!" based on my experience in a small part of BC. It's silly.

I find it hard to compare standards of living, though in general I think north american standards (by which I mean, the kind of quality people expect from houses/food/etc) are higher. However, there were things that were better in Oz (like more original fashion). It's all evens out imo.

cdnexpat

Kiwilass I pride myself on being thorough and being analytical - you did see where I put "housing (though variable)" right?

cdnexpat

Well I've lived in both so in my opinion the standards of living are higher in Oz. However that may just be because of the things I value for living; again depending on experiences your situation may vary.

ExKiwilass

I find that really hard to believe, sorry. Like you, I also have friends, many of whom have also worked in Australia, and that's not what I hear. I also have my own work experience to draw on.

I'm a part timer right now. Guess what? I can't be fired after 3 months here unless for a good reason. I can tell you I NEVER had that kind of protection in Melbourne.

And I don't understand the first sentence of your post. Whaa?

Lord Vader

The difference between regular and premium is about 6cents/liter in Canada. Gas this morning was 88.9 cent/liter (premium)when I filled up this morning.

The below link shows median household income. That means that half of the households earn more and half less than the median.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income

There is also a link that is floating around this site showing that many Australian cities have unaffordable housing compared to the US, UK, Canada (except for BC), Ireland and NZ. I can't find it at the moment.

Of course these are all statistics and it really depends on the overall situation of the individual.

ExKiwilass

You knew exactly what you were doing when you sandwhiched that in a sentence that ended in "tend to be cheaper".

Not. True. Cdnexpat.

I'm also not agreeing with you that the rest was. I don't have an opinion, because I never paid any attention to that stuff in Oz, busy as I was sweating like a pig, re-applying sunblock before going outside for 10 minutes, and setting up my mosquito coil so I wouldn't get eaten alive AGAIN that night after a long day of working and listening to comments about wogs, chicks, AFL, blah blah blah

And that was in inner city Melbourne.

I'm not bitter. Truly Just very glad to not be there anymore.

cdnexpat

Ok,

I'll make it simpler to undertand then. The casual work force in Canada or "part-timers" are really there so that the cost of labour (which is a company's most expensive cost of doing business) is low.

In Ontario like in Oz they prefer employing under 18s because they can pay them a lot less. You can easily get fired after 3 months in Ontario - it takes at least 12 months in most part-time jobs to get off "probation" and 3 months in most permenant ones. So maybe it's different in BC?

I'm not sure about your experience or your friends, but I have a wealth of experience in both, and having grown up in Ontario I know quite well how the part-time employment market works.

I'll put it this way - as a student in Ontario I was earning 6.85/hr (though minimum wage has gone up to about 8.50) and 4.85 while working in a service industry. I had zero protection and couldn't even afford to live on my own (even in the most remote basement apartment in a city that was at least 60 mins to Toronto).

In Australia casual workers get $15-20/hr (again varies from state/job) and depending on where they live can afford to live alone though they won't be living comfortably. True in the large cities like Sydney this is diffcult, but it's still easier then in Toronto. That's not even taking into consideration the generous Centrelink/New Start/HECS allowances the government provides. In Ontario to get any sort of gov't assistance for your UNI it depends on your parental income (unless you are over 25), which means it's extremely hard to get. Everyone in Oz get's HECS though.

Again this is just a discussion of the pros/cons I'm not trying to get into an emotional arguement. I think they are both great countries.

cdnexpat

You see though I have paid attention to that stuff. I tend to look at little things if possible.

What I said above stands true to my experience. I can't speak for the whole country (Canada or Oz) but only the places where I've lived.

As for Australian homes being unaffordable, I'm taking about new properties (not older houses). Case in point you can get a pretty nice 4 bedroom/2 bathroom house about 8-10k from Brisbane for about the same as what it'd cost to live about 40k from Toronto. Don't forget to factor in the 7k government grant for old homes and 26k for new homes. As far as I know that doesn't exist in Ontario.