skoura

My wife and I moved to Fredericton some 20 months ago and I wanted to just say a few good words about the city. I was born in Canada (Burlington, Ontario) and my wife is from Morocco, so when we moved here my wife applied for PR, I had spent the previous 40 years or so in the UK.
We chose Fredericton after doing lots of research on the internet and really liked what we saw about Fredericton. I have spent approximately 3 years of my adult life in Vancouver, but to be blatantly honest, we are not big city people and this is the compromise when you move to Canada and chose not to settle in or near to a big city. However, Fredericton has so much to offer and is in fact the best place I've ever lived in my life, and previous places I have lived in include London, UK, Bournemouth UK, Perth, Australia and I have also spent a lot of time in Copenhagen. Of course, if you could never live away from a big city then it's not for you, but if you think that you could and you are still deciding about where to live or relocate in Canada then read on.
The city itself is beautiful, stunning in fact in my opinion. The beautiful St John river is right on the doorstep of the city, as are amazing parks, forests, bike trails, hiking trails, downhill skiing (40 mins away) and anything you want to do outdoors. Fredericton has all of the shops that you could wish for, except for an Ikea! There is everything here from Costco, Home Depot to Gap, an Apple retailer and everything in-between. Fredericton you could say, has it all. There are great markets, theatres, great schools, the list goes on.
I have read some people bad-mouth New Brunswick and the population, but don't believe it. Yes, New Brunswick does have challenges, especially with population growth, but these are being addressed and don't get solved overnight. To give you some idea of this, last year NB saw the biggest immigration increase in decades, it's still a long way from where it needs to be but it's going in the right direction. If you look at Fredericton exclusive of NB then you will find a city that is thriving in all sectors. Don't take my word for it, look at Ignite Fredericton and see for yourself, or follow the business news at 'Huddle.Today'. Fredericton was named #1 Micro City in North America for FDI and this is just one of many awards and accolades it has received. The IT sector is booming as is construction.
The downtown area can seem quiet at times, but again, the local city council are aware of this and changes are afoot to address this, it's all down to the fact that the main shopping area is uptown and away from the downtown core, but there are still plenty of bars and cafes in the downtown area.
Fredericton offers pretty much everything, even a great little airport that I have used often, it sits on the TCH with easy access to Halifax, Quebec and Ontario, as well being just over an hour from the US border.
Housing in Fredericton is very affordable. It's not even a case of comparing the prices here to the major cities in Canada, Fredericton is a great place to buy property. To buy is much cheaper than renting in most cases. Fredericton has reasonable properties starting around $150,000 to over $1,000,000 so there is something for everyone budget I would suspect.
You will of course see people write negative things about NB and Fredericton, and i'm sure some of them are justified, but after looking at some posts on here and elsewhere, I can't help feeling that most of the people that write negative things would do so wherever they lived. Fredericton is of course not perfect, but it's perfect for my family and me.
As you can probably tell, I could wax lyrical about Fredericton because it really is a great place to live. I have a young daughter and the region has many many activities for families. When you live in a smaller city in Canada, it is best to look at what you have got rather what you haven't got.
If you would like any further information I would be more than happy to help where I can.
Good luck,
Christian

JamesM

Sounds like a nice place.

You'll need to keep the plugging up for a few months though if it's going to surpass Moncton on here as the desiree destination of the forum!

skoura

Hi James,

Yes, I think you're right! I have visited Moncton a couple of times and I know that it's good for employment and it's each to their own, but it wouldn't be for me. Only 2 days ago, it showed that of the 4,610 new PR in NB last year, the highest number (1470) went to Fredericton, although Moncton was only slightly behind, it does of course have approx. 30% higher population in it's CMA.
Fredericton all the way...…….

BristolUK

mogscat

BristolUK

Google images shows this for Fredericton

mogscat

skoura

Hi Mogscat,

First off, I can definitely say that the above photo is NOT of Fredericton.....! It`s probably from an advert that showcases where you can fly to from Fredericton in the winter months. However, there are nice beaches here to make use of in the summer months, have a look at Mactaquac Park beach.
Anyhow, to answer your questions. The public transport here is basically the local bus service which currently operates Monday to Saturday, but a Sunday service is set to start in the next couple of months. I know a couple who have just moved to Fredericton from Russia and they say that the service is excellent.
I don`t have any personal knowledge of high schools here, but again, people I have spoken to say that they are very good. FHS (Fredericton High School) has a very good reputation, as do the Universities. For a small city, the Universities have a quite large combined student population of over 12000. Work opportunities aren`t the same as the big cities but of course you don`t have the same competition. There are lots of IT jobs here which pay very well, but as I said before, you don`t need the same income as the likes of Vancouver and Toronto. We bought our house 18 months ago as a renovation special and paid $120,000 and have a mortgage of $420PCM!!!! My family live in YVR and my sister pays $2200PCM for a modern 1 Bedroom apt. in Vancouver!!!
As in my previous post, to settle in Fredericton you have got to accept that you don`t have a large city on your doorstep. You can drive to the following places from between 4-12 hours; Halifax; Quebec; Montreal; Ottawa; Toronto; Boston USA + New York City. From Calgary you can drive to Medicine Hat in a day ;-)
Living in Fredericton would in some ways be similar to Gloucester. I used to visit Winchester often, and although Canada will never match UK towns and cities for history, Fredericton makes up for it in many other ways.
Any more questions please give me a shout.

BristolUK

The Severn has changed a bit.

skoura

Well, you never know with global warming, maybe Brizzle will look like that one day......and maybe one day Brizzle will have a team in the Premier league...but I`m doubting both scenarios

Vulcanoid

Uh, well technically true, but you could also do a lot while there, get back to Calgary, and still be in the same day - they're only about 3 hours apart! A "day's drive" from Calgary would get to Vancouver (11 hours) or Winnipeg (12)

Hurlabrick

Gloucester Docks changed a bit then??

raindropsandroses

claphamer

Whilst technically true, if you switch sports to rugby there's a premiership team ready and waiting!

Thanks for painting such a lovely picture. How do you find it for meeting new people? Many of the downsides I have heard about there (and Canada in general!) revolve around their hesitancy to make friends with new people.

raindropsandroses

True, but with the salary and cost of living differences in Calgary you could afford to fly to all of those places whenever you wanted.

Housing cost is a bit of a red herring. Yes, in the maritimes real estate is cheap, but everything else, utility bills, groceries, gas etc are the same, or often more expensive than Alberta and BC. So yes, your mortgage may be cheaper, but salary doesn't go as far due to the other costs.

We are now moving from NS to BC, and we've previously lived in PEI and I can tell you a low mortgage doesn't have the advantages that you sacrifice higher salaries etc for. Especially in Alberta, who pay far less tax. The difference in tax alone is your mortgage payment covered.

The services are not as good either, have a search of the forum for cost of living in the maritimes, and do have a read about why numerous members have left the maritimes. Jsmith had a good thread recently debating moving to New Brunswick from BC which might be worth a read.

Its great that the OP likes NB, but there are a lot of very insidious problems here which become apparent the longer you've lived here. Perhaps OP is still in the honeymoon phase?

I must just add too, have you ever used public transport is Russia OP? I'm not surprised your friends think its better, from personal experience anywhere would be very hard pushed to be worse, I still shudder at the memories!