Sue (dreamon) has given you good advice, Molson.

One of the things I would do if I wanted to work in the environmental field is to contact a firm of architects or a commercial real estate person in my target area. These people would know the names of firms that specialize in assessing the environmental aspects of building projects (and some architectural firms themselves have a "green" focus).

I also would use the Canadian Company Capabilities website to search for relevant organizations (in both the public and private sectors) in my target area. A link to the CCC website, which I have provided here, also is included in the Wiki article entitled Finding Job Opportunities.

I used it to look for consulting engineers and project developers. Under consulting engineers I found
But you will note that there are three pages of listings of consulting engineers in Vancouver, and only that one in Victoria.

I found only a couple of project developers in Vancouver, and none in Victoria. There surely must be more of them, particularly in Vancouver, but I'm just talking about what I found on the CCC website.

A Google search brought up a list of the ministries in BC's provincial government. Ministries that I think may be relevant to you include:
Read the articles on each ministry's web page. Look at the issues that are being discussed. Look for names of people and organizations that are mentionied in the articles.

Just as an example, the Office of Housing website has a link to a November 15, 2007 article entitled NEW GREEN BUILDING PROPOSALS COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE.

• The article tells you that the B. C. Building Code is being updated.
  
  
• It states that, "High rise residential buildings and larger commercial buildings must meet the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers 90.1(2004) standard."
  
  
• That tells you that, if you are not already familiar with ASHRAE's standards, it might be in your interests to become familiar with them.
  
  
• The article ends by providing the name and telephone number of a Public Affairs Officer.

You can start your networking by phoning this person and telling her that you're an environmental professional who will be moving to Victoria and who will be looking for employment. Ask her to give you the names of relevant people in her ministry or in other ministries that she may know. Then phone those people and say, "So And So suggested I call you."

As Sue said, it's about networking. It doesn't matter whether or not the person to whom you're speaking can offer you a job. That is not the point in the short term. Your immediate objective is to pick people's brains about the lay of the land, about current conditions in the field in which you want to work, about the number and type of opportunities that exist in that field, about the qualifications that employers would be looking for, etc.

As you get further into the process, as your knowledge increases, and as you get comfortable, you can start probing more sensitive areas, e.g., salary ranges. But, with that said, the public sector is more transparent about that, and you'll see salary ranges posted on the websites that publish government job vacancies.

Another source of information is the Canadian Cohousing Network. Cohousing projects often are started by people who care about the environment. They often engage architects and project developers who are committed to the protection of the environment. Again, while these people may not be able to offer you employment, they would be good contacts because they would be likely to know "who's who in the zoo."

I wouldn't worry about figuring out whether the Greater Victoria Area is a suitable place in which to live. Vancouver Island is as good as it gets in Western Canada, in my opinion. If you don't like it there, you won't like it anywhere (or at least that's what I believe).

If I had to predict, my guess would be that you would like Victoria (or one of its outlying communities) well enough. If you had a challenge, it would be in finding a job there. In that respect I echo what kws stated earlier in the thread. You might be forced to settle for Vancouver instead, or even -- and I hope for your sake that it doesn't come to this -- Calgary. Well, I am biased. Look at the comment in my profile in the top left hand corner of this post.

I'm sorry if I've made redundant statements and mentioned things that you'd already discovered on your own. But, if you or anyone else who reads this post hasn't quite figured out how Canadian networking operates, I hope this post will be helpful.

Hey Molson,

What is your area of work within the environmental sector? I know a couple of folk out in Victoria who are in that business and may be of some help.

Sue and Judy

Thanks again for the info and ideas. I'm starting to see the real difference the Canadian culture can offer! I suspect any similar emails to a company in the UK would get stoped by the spam guard, let alone actually answered!

I've been looking around the Government sites (as I am currently a Civil Servant, albeit in an enterprise based agency rather than governance). I'm assuming their job application process is very strict (as it will have to open and transparent), but I now see there is value in talking to employees to get a feel for the key issues etc.

I'll start digging and searching and fire off some emails (carefully selected and edited of course) and see where I get to.

I'm still interested in knowing about what sort of areas people would recommend looking at in Victoria as affordable, family orientated commuting areas. Again, any decision to even look for work in Victoria must be on the basis I could afford a decent house there - there is no point wasting energy looking otherwise. I'm not looking to find the perfect house - just to know it may exist in the locality of Victoria.

kws - thanks for the offer - I'll PM you with details.

Thanks again all. I'll get to it!

Depending on what area of the environmental sector you are in / want to get into, you might want to spend some time researching LEED (Leadership in Engery and Environmental Desgin) (http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19 - it's very much in vogue in BC at present.

Molson, another point I would emphasize is the value of using the phone for the purposes of picking people's brains. I believe the phone, at least if it is used as the first shot across the bow, is more likely to elicit useful information than email.

I've never lived in Victoria, but recently have been researching it very actively with a view to moving there myself.

VICTORIA

As far as I can tell, Victoria doesn't really have what I would call a "bad" area. I think most of it is family-friendly.

As with most places, it tends to get cheaper the further out from the centre you go. (This is a broad generalization, as there usually are exceptions to this "rule.")

You then have to weigh up the pain of commuting against the affordability of property. I personally hate commuting from the suburbs to a downtown core. For a city that is as small as Victoria is, the commute from the suburbs to downtown can be quite bad.

TRAFFIC

I flew to Victoria in October, and caught a cab from the airport (which is in Saanich) to downtown. I landed during morning rush hour, and found that the drive along Highway #17 (the Patricia Bay Highway) was rather slow and bumper-to-bumper.

Now I should qualify this by saying it wasn't as bad as Calgary's traffic. And Calgary's traffic, in turn, isn't as bad as the traffic in some other places. Still, my point is that, for a city of Victoria's size, the morning rush hour traffic was not as good as I thought it should have been.

NEIGBHBOURHOODS

When I move to Victoria, I'll be in a different position from you. I'll be semi-retired. To the extent that I work, I'll be doing my work remotely, from home.

I'm currently torn between living close to downtown (James Bay, Fairfield, Rockland, possibly even as "far" out as Fernwood) or living in the Cowichan Valley - Mill Bay area.

When it comes to most cities, I share dbd33's opinion of Toronto. He has stated that the inner core has merits, and the countryside has merits. He has stated that the territory that is between those extremes is a soul-destroying wasteland (or words to that effect).

Now, when it comes to Victoria, the vegetation softens the impression of a "wasteland" that one has when one sees Calgary's new suburban neighbourhoods. Because of Calgary's harsher climate, trees grow much more slowly here. Victoria's vegetation is much more lush, it grows more quickly, and there are broad-leafed evergreens.

The other point to consider is that the parts of a city that dbd33 and I would describe as suburban wastelands actually are the parts that most people would regard as family-friendly.

When our children were young, my husband and I raised them in a neighbourhood that I now consider to be soulless. But, back in the day, this neighbourhood was perfect for our family.

When our kids were little, it meant a lot to me that our neighbourhood had a community centre with an ice rink and wonderful dads who coached ice hockey. Now I want a neighbourhood with secondhand bookstores, sidewalk cafes, and a farmer's market or little shops where I can buy organic vegetables, boutique cheeses and local honey.

NATURAL HAZARDS

I have done some research into potential natural hazards on Vancouver Island. They include earthquakes and tsunamis. When it comes to earthquakes, it evidently helps enormously if one's house is built on bedrock rather than infill. When it comes to tsunamis, Victoria's risk is not as bad as that of the west coast of Vancouver Island. If one lives 4 metres or more above sea level, one should be safe from anything the ocean could throw at one. Nice as the views are from Dallas Road (which faces the ocean), I'm not sure that I would feel comfortable living along there. As an environmental specialist, you surely know all this better than I do, but I mention it for the benefit of others who may read this post.


YOUR STANDARDS

Another thing that makes it difficult to answer your questions about Victoria is that I don't know what your definition of a "decent" house is. I don't know if, by your definition, there is a "decent" house to be had in the whole of Victoria, or indeed in the whole of Canada. For example, most Canadian houses are constructed of wood rather than brick. Some British people find it difficult to wrap their minds around that fact. Victoria has plenty of houses that I would consider decent, but then I am not you.

AMATEURS VERSUS REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS

I think it would help you to get hooked up with a real estate salesperson.

I have learned, to my cost, that basing a real estate purchase on the advice of friends, who are amateurs, can get one into a neighbourhood that is right for the friends but wrong for oneself. That happened to us when we moved to Houston.

A professional is more objective. If he/she is good at his/her job, he/she knows how to put his/her own priorities aside and listen to the client's priorities.

I have noticed on this forum and also in "real life" that many people go to great lengths to praise the country / city / neighbourhood in which they live. I have tried to figure out why they do it. My best guess is that, if they recognised that their choice hadn't necessarily been the best one, they would experience cognitive dissonance.

What people need to realise, if they are to dispense useful advice, is that there is no "one size fits all" solution.

This applies to me too. As far as I am concerned, Calgary has reached its "use by" date for me. I no longer want to live here, and feel drawn to the BC coast.

I warn people against Calgary and tell them its bad points. But there still are people relocating to Calgary, and many of those who do so are blissfully happy here.

Anyway, you can contact a real estate salesperson by phone or email and tell them your criteria. They can then narrow the choices for you and suggest areas that meet your criteria.

SPECIFIC REAL ESTATE SALESPEOPLE

Before I realized that Mette Hobden (maddhobs of this forum) was a real estate salesperson, I started working with Sasha Appleton of Newport Realty in Victoria. I have found her to be fabulously helpful. She is a really good listener. Although she is much younger than I am, she has a great ability to take note of my priorities and find properties that meet my criteria. She has lived in Victoria all her life, so knows the city really well. She grew up on the east side of the city, but now lives on the west side, so is familiar with the pros and cons of each side.

But, if you want to cast your net as wide as the Cowichan Valley, you might consider contacting Mette Hobden of Emi-Great Relocation Specialists.

Hope that helps.

Molson, if you have not already joined the Brits 2 Vancouver forum, I recommend that you do. The members of the Canada section of the British Expats forum are spread across Canada, whereas the Brits 2 Vancouver forum is focused on the southern mainland of BC and on Vancouver Island.

If your search for a new home takes you to Vancouver and if you end up needing a real estate salesperson there, I recommend Frank and Sue Gerryts of Relocation 2 BC. Frank posts here on the BE forum under the user name of Frank'n Sense.

Can't really help on the question of Victoria. I've visited a few times and it seems like a nice place but job availability was an issue for us so we chose Vancouver.

I do enjoy throwing a few comments into the mix though.

Brick built houses - not considered ideal in earthquake zones (I am not an engineer though). I no longer have the reference but seem to recall reading that they are expensive to reinforce and still more prone to damage in the event of a major tremor than timber or concrete.

Environmental jobs - perhaps not an issue if you are management but searching on sites like Workopolis for environmental sector jobs will turn up jobs from bin lorry driver through environmental engineering to land use and planning. Ecoemploy is a useful company listings source but again with a fairly broad definition of environmental.

Government jobs - process is transparent and rigorous.

look up www.eco.ca for proffesional envirnomental jobs in Canada. You will need to join the site but it's free registration and has decent jobs on there. unlike the ones posted on more general sites such as workopolis or such likes.

The other folk are right, Victoria doesn't have any real bad areas, well not compared to the UK. The ones considered bad are Esquimalt and Langford. Both are more working class areas with some problem areas. Esquimalt is dominated by the naval base and Langford is supposed to have it's problems but there are plenty of new developments there which are certainly more affordable.

kws

Molson,

If you are looking for a good estate agent/realtor in Victoria, speak to Tony Joe at Remax (don't have his details at hand). We used his company to buy and sell our house and have only praise for the service and advice we got from him and his staff. If you want a good mortgage broker or other financial advice feel free to ask when you want it. I know that there is a way of unlocking funds (tax free) from your UK pension in order to buy a house, if you transfer it across to a canadian fund. You will qualify as a first time buyer here and get a tax break on the purchase.

kws

check out www.eco.ca for decent environmental jobs and many other good links for careers in this field.

kws

Gold mine! Thanks kws - much appreciated.