For those of you who have just arrived in Canada do you find car insurance here more or less than UK.

Does electric (hydro) cost more or less?

Because local phone calls in UK are charged by the minute being online must cost more? Here folks can be online all day and it not cost anything.

I am sure there must be other things that are found to be more or less expensive than UK, but right now I can't think of what. So if anything springs to mind add to it.

Okay I'm going to be the first one to say it....CHEESE is more expensive in Canada, god knows why??

One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be a lack of 'free' dialup Internet companies, unlike the UK; though perhaps the cost of the calls in the UK would have added up to the same as we paid over here for dialup each month.

Otherwise my new DSL is 10x faster than I had in the UK and about a third cheaper; though I hadn't put much effort into shopping around over there so I suspect I could have got it for around the same price.

In BC, car insurance is much more expensive (nearly double) than I used to pay (rural Worcestershire previously).

Cell phone tariffs are more expensive here.

My combined cable TV/internet broadband here (Shaw) is more expensive here.

All my utilities are commercially rated (residential properties and business are located on same piece of land), so I can't fairly compare rates with the UK.

UK car insurance:
2 adults, fully comp, protected max no claims, social, domestic and pleasure including commuting to a place other than usual workplace (sort of limited cover work related travel), 15,000 miles annual limit, 10 year old 1.4L French supermini (subcompact) hatchback car = approx GBP200

BC car insurance:
2 adults, full cover, 4 years no claims, more than 10 years driving experience, commuting more than 15km per day, 2 year old 2.3L Japanese subcompact/compact wagon = approx C$2000.

New books are a lot more expensive in Canada than the UK.

Yea I have heard about all the above before, but what I can not understand is how cheap bananas are. Both Canada and UK import them, but they are far more expensive in the UK.

Utility cost in general far cheaper than UK -

Electricty cost - BC - $0.067 cost Uk $0.26 per unit
Natural Gas - we paid about $120 per month UK now only pay about $30-50 depending on time of year.
Water - Canada next to nothing about $15/month for metered, UK lots about $80/month metered.
Property tax - BC $230/month UK 1/2 size property $320.
Petrol - Canada BC $1.02/litre UK about $2.00/litre oput of Lower mainland about $0.86/litre.
Food - we have also found to be far cheaper and better quality in BC but that may be due to big city living.
Lifestyle - priceless (awesome).
Property obviously depends where you choose to live - highly desirable areas then pay the price or not.
General household goods - about a half/third of UK costs and tons of choice.
Car insuance - about double UK but what the hell for the lifestyle...!
Fishing license - still cannot work out the Canadian system - far cheaper in the UK and much simpler rules) - but Salmon is cheap to by so go figure.
Crime - goes where ever there are immigrants and large cities - feel sorry for what the Canadians must think... but such is life eh? gobilization = success????

What I have found to be more in Canada are:-

Electricity - more expensive here than in UK
Car Insurance - more than 3x the cost of UK
Being out in the sticks meant we didn't have a lot of choice with telly and internet providers. Paying more than in the UK.
Mobile phones are a rip-off

On the plus side..
Diesel - far cheaper here 95c/litre
Property Tax - half the cost of UK
House phone - 3c a minute to the UK (bargain) However a long distance call is 10c a minute (be it to other provinces in Canada or 1/2 hour away in Winnipeg!).
Best of all.....FREE water

In general, can't complain.

Now I am trying to remember.....was that the VISA or Mastercar ad campaign from a few years ago???


But yes, hell of a lot easier and cheaper to go skiing from Vancouver than it was from Manchester and that is including a trip to the SnowDome in Leeds

I live in BC

Electricity in BC costs $0.0615 per kWh + GST (6%) = $0.06519

A quick currency conversion says that $0.06519 CDN = £0.033 British Pounds
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I have a home phone, cable TV, and high-speed internet through Shaw. It's a package deal they offer to everyone. With the phone service, I get unlimited calls anywhere in the US and Canada, and 1000 minutes of free international calling a month.

This package from Shaw is $139.95 a month + GST and PST = $152.90

A quick currency conversion says that $152.90 CDN = £77

I should also add that regular petrol for the car here today is $0.99 per litre

A quick currency conversion says that $0.99 CDN = £0.50 British Pounds per litre

That cable is a lot cheaper than mine in the UK. my basic cost per month for TV, phone and 20mb broadband is £101. Last months bill was over £130 beause I got a few movies on demand. Ouch!

Mine would actually even be $25 (£12) cheaper if I went with just a normal phone line without all the unlimited long-distance.

I also get extra cable instead of just basic cable which costs me an extra $23 (£11)


If I wanted just basic cable TV + basic phone + high-speed internet it would be about $104 (that's including taxes) a month, which is about £53

Diary Product costs are a direct result of protectionism, mainly for the Quebec Farmer, a major producer of Cheese.

Oh, quite different from the European Union then?