Yoong

Not too late chits, you can learn how to drive in Singapore and practise
everyday until you feel confident with driving. My cousin came to Edmonton
1 year ago from Singapore and she found that she had no choice but to
rent a car for transportation.
Yoong

chits

thanks to all of U for yr valueble input.I am so used to public transport.Now,I will have to learn driving !

dingbat

You will, if only to drive as fast as you can out of there. It's a hole, no place for a teenage boy either.

chits

Mrs Miggins

My other half works in the whole oil thing kinda and Fort McMurray came up as an option for us. I spoke to the chap who was offering him work when he called one day and explained that I have kids and will be all on my own when OH away for a month at a time. With that, he quite simply said that he couldn't do it to us as it was SO not a place to be for a family like us...... Now that came from an EMPLOYER!!!!! Who was pretty desperate for people like my husband. So it MUST be bad!!!!

Good luck! And as a wise woman once said to me, if you don't know what to do - DO NOTHING

Mrs Miggins x

chits

hmmm...it's that tough ! no postive sides to this place

Novocastrian

No. None at all. Think Klondike circa 1849. Add drugs. Subtract human decency.

Steve_P

From what I understand that description pretty well hits the nail right on the head.

comet555

I'm Canadian and just moved away from Fort McMurray. We lived there for 5 years after we finished University. For us it was a great place to start out, pay off student loans and save some money.

While we were there my husband did nothing but work. He just had a crazy schedule that left no time for much else. When he was not working he was exhausted. The entire town is short staffed so employees often work a lot more than they should be. So yes.... I guess it is all money, money, money there. We really didn't have a life in Fort McMurray so it was time to leave.

I did have some very close friends with small children like us. So it's not all bad. There are buses there to get around so you don't really have to drive unless you really want to. I'm sure the bus system isn't as good as some of the other major cities though.

When we sold our house in March we sold it for about $500,000. That was for a 3 bed house that was 27 years old. Our house was all right but nothing special, and it was on a small lot in an older area. Housing is VERY expensive. It is almost impossible to find a place to rent so try and line up some temporary housing from the company before hand. Even buying a house is very competitive and most houses sell within a day or two.

Make sure you check out housing before you go. I can't stress that enough.

Here's a few links you should check out.

http://www.mymcmurray.com/community/message-board.html
This is the message board for the town.

http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/
The local paper

http://www.mls.ca/map.aspx?AreaID=6419
Real estate site, I've linked to the town of Fort McMurray and it's suburbs.

http://www.woodbuffalo.net/AboutCostHouse.html
Cost of living in Fort McMurray
In my experience the averages listed on this site are on the low side. You would have a hard time finding anything on the low end of the scale.

Anyhow... I don't want to be so negative but make sure you really think about it. Fort McMurray can be great if you have the right job and mentality. But if you go there and have to work 60+ hours a week and have to pay $3000 a month for a place to live then you might be looking for trouble. Keep in mind Edmonton is the nearest big city and it is 4.5 hours a way.

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

dbd33

I've just looked through the accomodation ads on that message board, nearly all of them make some reference to drugs not being allowed in the house. That's not something you typically see in rental adverts, just how much of a drug problem does Fort McMoney have?

dingbat

Disproportionately huge. Cocaine is the biggie.

Mrs Miggins

Where there is Cocaine there is everything else too.....

It sounds like hell and I really am glad that we didn't go. I just hope the person who started the thread has another option......Good luck to them anyway

steve666

In this weeks Economist.
A place to avoid me thinks...

http://www.economist.co.uk/world/la/...ory_id=9410672

chits

thanks steve for the link.drug seems to be a big problem.I come from a country where there is absolutely no drugs and it carries a death penanlty.We need to be careful.Anyways,no harm in living in fortmm for a couple of year or two.

Once again thanks everyone for yr valuble inputs.

dbd33

It gets bitterly cold. I wouldn't go there just because of that and I'm not from Singapore. Good luck if you go but really have you no other choice?