SAW 04

I don't challenge anywhere in Canada having bad weather however I refer in post to the constant thaw freeze cycle. snowy cold winters I have no issue with, slushy icy winters I do.

woodworm

SAW04 I can understand your decision to move away from NS. Not that this would be an option for me at the moment, but I think I know where you are coming from. I feel similarly about a lot of things.
Atlantic Canada can only retain 40% of immigrants
( http://canada.metropolis.net/pdfs/ODC_Akbari_vol2_e.pdf ) Why is that?

But this is not deter anyone from moving here. Give it a try and if you don't like it or can't survive here, move away . Nova Scotia is desperate for of immigrants. If they lose more population they will get less equalization money from Ottawa, which will drive the taxes up even more for the rest of us. So come here and help us pay taxes, pleeaaze

SAW 04

I would certainly not try to put anyone off living here. If your looking for a quiet peaceful life and are in a stable job then life here is not bad. We are looking for more hence the move.

Kaye5

I'm not having a go at you... but you have posted many times in the forum about your disatisfaction with NS, but haven't really given much detail.

I asked you what your occupation was, and your opinion on whether the lack of work was down to the recession (in which case you could find the same problem elsewhere). Or if the problem is restricted to NS (I mean for your particular occupation). I'm interested in what you have to say on this as we are looking to move there. You didn't comment!

There is clearly a difference between living in NS and say downtown or inner suburbs of Toronto. On my last visit to Toronto, I felt the similarities to London (although I saw more homeless in downtown Toronto than I see in central London)! If it is a more cosmopolitan lifestyle you are looking for, then you will no doubt get that in Toronto (although if that floats your boat, what drew you to NS in the first place)? Again, I'm not having a go at you, just interested in your views!

As for HST at 13% - that's sales tax? Can't say the increase in UK VAT from 15% to 17.5% has sent me running for the hills. Taxes are inevitable whereever you are. As has been commented on already, NS's low population leads to the higher taxes needed to support the province. For those of us who want to "get away from the crowd", that is something we are stuck with I guess.

SAW 04

If you check the archives you will find I have also posted many times regarding our satisfaction with NS....things change. Our reasons are complex and perhaps unique to us.

I certainly wont post on a public forum regarding my occupation but rest assured I am in the upper income bracket and enjoy the work I do. The attitude of my employer and lack of vision and acceptance of change is a challenge. In my field of work or others there is little or no choice. As I said if you have a stable job and want the quiet lifestyle (just as we did when we first came here) it could well work for you, as it did us at first. Quality of life is a unique and personal thing. We have come to realise that the quiet, live on 2 acres and never see anyone type of lifestyle is not for us.

Your first mistake is that you (as most prospective/new immigrants do) are comparing your UK situation to your limited understanding of living in Canada. Comparing living in Toronto with living in London is not what Im doing. Comparing English VAT with NS HST is not what Im doing. I live in a province where only 40% of immigrants remain, a province that has the highest taxes in the Country (from July 1st), a province with limited work options. Its a beautiful place to live (if your into scenery) but for us long term, no thanks

dbd33

It seems odd to punctuate this with an exclamation mark. Homeless people are a feature of life in Toronto, much much more so than in London. I think poverty in general is much more common in Toronto than in London, the food banks certainly run flat out. I don't find the homeless to be threatening, much less so than the traffic light beggars and obvious meth freaks, but they are everywhere. Note though that people from Toronto are shocked by the homelessness in Vancouver so, I suppose, by Canadian standards, Toronto's not so bad.

Souvy

The homlessness I saw in Vancouver some years ago was close to the worst I have ever seen, anywhere in the world. It seemed to be mostly drug-related.

dbd33

I have to say that when someone who went to school at Jarvis and Carlton and has been all over the US by bus says that a place is rough I'm inclined to believe her. I'm interested to see Vancouver but in a kind of ghoulish, gawking at a car crash, kind of way.

Souvy

It was a real eye opener for me. I went to East Hastings, in broad daylight, in the company of a rather large Italian bloke. We both felt very nervous.

I mainly feel sorry for the beggars in Toronto. I had a longish chat with one outside my hotel a few years ago. He did well on cigs. He was on the streets because of mental illness (bipolar summat).

I asked him how he'd managed to survive the previous night (which had been in the minus 20s).

"I really don't know".

That made me sad. There but for the grace etc.

dbd33

There's an overlap between homelessness and begging but it's not absolute. On the Queen car out to the shelters in Corktown I'd often hear beggars trading their takings for drugs, they weren't homeless (assuming you count a shelter as "home"). Conversely, I often run the dog in Allan Gardens where, overnight, there's a body on every flat surface, but no one ever asks me for anything. I doubt that they're intimidated by the dog.

Kaye5

Simply because for one leaving London for a "better life", the homeless aspect is maybe something one would like to leave behind - one wouldn't do that with a move from London to Toronto. This may come as a surprise to some making that move. But not everyone. Wouldn't want to generalise.

dbd33

Conversely, having been in Toronto for yonks, it came as a surprise to me that there was such fuss in the papers over so few homeless in London.

Kaye5

Well, I must confess, I didn't go back years and years through all your posts in the archives.

Fine - you are entitled to change your mind about what lifestyle you want to live. You sound very bitter about NS and quite aggressive in your posts - I was wondering what aspects of NS you found so bad to make you feel this way. I find it useful to hear opinions and experiences, good or bad - as you say my knowledge is "limited" so please don't knock me for trying to gather information. Not sure why you need to be so cloak and dagger about your occupation, but as we're clearly not in your league anyway, it doesn't really matter.

Lots of people make comparisons, in all sorts of situations - I don't really understand your comment about it being a "mistake" to make comparisons - surely that's all part of weighing up the pros and cons of a move - to take what you like (or don't) about where you are and see whether it would be better or worse where you are heading for. The comparisons were mine; I don't expect you or anyone else to make the same ones.

Tuppence

This is the key point about NS.
HRM may have a population around 350k, but it is a very very small world. If he mentions what he does, everyone would be able to find out exactly who he is without any trouble at all. That's a bad move for someone who is trying to maintain employment while planning a move out.

This place is nothing like the UK. When you work in any industry it's one degree of separation. And I'm amazed at how many people have family links too.
We used to live in Basingstoke, and people there would work in Camberley, Swindon, Oxford, Southampton, London, Slough, Guildford. If you live in HRM, you probably work in HRM - that is a big difference and it can make a huge impact on who knows who.

By the way - I can't see how you can say SAW is being aggressive (he's my hubby by the way), it's an opinion of someone who's lived it for 5 years. He has actually been very balanced, and saying it's not right for us.

MikeUK

I’ll throw in my penny on this, you could consider using Mount pleasant Go station (Brampton) and live out in Caledon
The trains aren’t as regular as the main Oakville line but it does have lots of improvements scheduled and Mount Pleasant is (supposedly) being developed as a northern transit centre
I live about 10mins form the station in the Niagara escarpment green belt in a small village
I think if nothing else its worth a look on MLS
However I work at the Junction of the 401 and 427 my commute by car is about 35mins on average ( as low as 20mins and up to an hour on a bad day)