I am looking to immigrate to Vancouver with my wife and young family with in the next 2 years. I am a fully qualified electrician in the UK and was wondering if anybody had any information as to whether i would require further qualifications to work in Canada. I am also curious as to wages relatively to the UK

Hi there and welcome to the forum.

I'm certainly no expert on electricians but from what I can understand, you need to have something called the Red Seal (have a look here...........http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Skilled_Trades)
and prove you've got 9000+ hours of experience (not including any apprenticeships) to work in Canada.

I've no idea on wages but if you do a search of the forums (top right) then I'm sure it's been discussed before.

Hope that helps, good luck. I'm sure some sparkies will be along to help you later.

Edited to add: I've just done a quick search for you and the only mention I found of a sparkies hourly wage in Vancouver was from 2006, when it was $27. But there are other threads, the most recent being one from July of this year when somebody was discussing their potential salary in Alberta and had been offered $35 per hr. So hopefully that will give you some idea. There are lots of threads on the cost of living in Vancouver as well if you want to search for them to give you an idea of what to expect to be paying out each month. Basically though, most say that the cost of living in Canada is about the same in UK once everything is taken into account - cheaper for some things, more expensive for others, but generally about the same in total.

We came to alberta with hubby being fully qualified electrician in the uk.

i know that your hubby will have to get assed to see if he can challenge the red seal, without this your hubby wont get a licence etc etc
i am not sure where you get this done in BC but if you search google.ca then it should bring the results that you need.
$35 is min wages for calgary, but depends on the area you will be working for and if you are industrial or construction.

i know that when we came on recci hubby walked out with loads of job offers as he is industrial, still a mega demand here for them, construction electricians seem to be quiet a few heading over.....................

hope that helps

Thanks very much for your help. Good to know what is needed and that there will hopefully be jobs out there.

Hi Julian

you need to contact your local apprenticeship office

http://www.tradesecrets.gov.ab.ca/

the dispute your qualification by proving so many hours in the trade 8000ish i think, the take your red seal exam

i have recently passed my red seal in Alberta.

Paul