Hi all, we recently moved over from the UK and not sure if it’s temporary as yet. We’re in the Toronto area but it isn’t really for us and we had planned to go to Ottawa this Autumn.
Before we shift everything across, I’m wondering if it’s different enough or more of the same?
Thanks for any advice or information!

Ottawa is a small government town so if you're finding Toronto dull a move to Ottawa is unlikely to fix that. The weather is worse in Ottawa but it does offer easy access to Gatineau Park.

Thanks for replying. It’s not that it’s dull, there just doesn’t seem to be much for young kids around the area, which I wasn’t expecting. We’re not looking for a busy city life by any means, just a lot of family friendly activity.

It’s also how far away anything is around here and the environment too, I’m hoping Ottawa is different in that way but wondering if that’s more of an overall Canada thing.

It's not clear to me what you don't like, what is it about the "environment"? It might also help if you said where you are, Mississauga, for example, is horrible to look at but does have all manner of activities for children. So does Oakville though it's insufferably snob south of the QEW and hideous housing projects north of there. Like Mississauga, blindness is an asset in Oakville.

We’re in Pickering/Ajax area. I’ve found a few things to do in Whitby but again it’s a trek each time. Are things generally closer in Ottawa? It reads as though it’s much smaller and so easier to get around, but I’ve not seen it yet.

Environment wise I mean the way it physically is, you can’t walk to many places (the paths literally stop), it doesn’t look nice around here either - it feels so busy and built up, and all the roads are busy highways. Is that a Canada thing or just the closer you get to Toronto?

I’ve been to Quebec before and really liked it there so hoping Ottawa is more like that, with some nicer looking areas but appreciate it’s another major city, so that’s why I’m asking really.

I think your problem is that you're not in Toronto but an exurb. If you lived in the Beach of Swansea you'd be able to walk to everything or, worst case, take the tram. The same will be true if you move to not-Ottawa. If you move to the Glebe then it'll feel a bit like Toronto proper, that is, an actual place. If you move to Kanata it'll be similar to where you are now.

Thank you, that’s really helpful, I appreciate it

The catch, alas, is that living in an ordinary neighbourhood, such as those mentioned, now takes extraordinary money.

That price increase was definitely not something we expected!
I think the cost of living in the UK (other than electricity and gas) is now a lot cheaper than Canada too, food prices in particular are so high. It seems you kind of need to be a millionaire here these days.

I'm a little perplexed at the idea of there being recent immigrants to Toronto. Refugees, of course, any safe haven, but, when I came the appeal was the cheap houses. Toronto was the end of the earth, no one had heard of it, but an ordinary person with a decent job could have a couple of houses. Not having to pay a huge mortgage made the place a reasonable, if not especially attractive, destination. I don't think Toronto is much more of a place now, it's uglier and has more traffic congestion. It has a basketball team which might be a feature but I'm guessing you're not a American and probably don't care. What's the attraction?

My husband is from here so we have family around here and a small house to sell (elsewhere in Ontario). Our thinking was we wouldn’t be starting as full newcomers but it turns out we aren’t that far off really.
It was never the intention to stay in the Toronto area though, he lived here for many years and can’t stand it. I just wonder if Ottawa is really that different (and I hope it is!)

What do you mean by anything?? Everything is a long drive really and flights arent cheap. I prefer Ottawa over Toronto. It looks better, has more museums and art galleries. That said I don't know either very well.

Mostly the family activities where you can take young children, there’s not a lot less than an hour of travel around here. Close museums would be good so that’s worth knowing, thank you.

My Sister in Law lives in Stittsville, which is to the West of Ottawa, past dbd's dreaded Kanata. It is typical suburban Canada. There are sidewalks on the sub-divisions, you can cycle to the park or school (at least their kids do), but going anywhere else, shopping, eating, drinking, requires a car journey. Ottawa itself has always struck me as a nice enough, slightly dull city but it seems to have enough to keep a family occupied. My 13 year old went to stay with her cousins this summer and they spent a few weeks on excursions around Ottawa, all of which were within an hours drive. Mind you when one lives in the far flung reaches of the East of Canada, a day trip to IKEA is something to be looked forward to!

I'm not a fan of the urban sprawl that is the Greater Toronto Area, so the smaller urban sprawl in Ottowa would be preferable to me. As dbd says if you have the ability live in the nicer urban areas - The Glebe is very nice in Ottawa - then that's a different lifestyle altogether. But one needs a few million for a house which is problematic. I would live in and around Ottawa though before I'd live in and around Toronto. It gets very hot in the summer and cold in the winter but there are two weeks each spring and fall which are nice. :-)

Of course, jobs and access to work may dictate where you live, unless you are able to work remotely, in which case its the accessibility and reliability of high speed internet.

Cost of living UK vs. Canada is a subject of endless debate and it can be particularly sensitive for those fairly newly moved over, with recent UK experience and a tendency to convert everything back to GBP in their heads when looking at the cost of things. Canada is not a cheap place to live although the cost varies across the country. Here for example, housing is cheaper than many other places but the cost of flights, food and other things are more expensive. I don't think that you need to be a millionaire to live in Canada, outside of affording that nice house, but a "comfortable" lifestyle is increasingly expensive (depending on you definition of comfortable).

Haha the two weeks each spring and fall - I like that

Your reply is so helpful, thank you!

We would be looking at a house in the outskirts really, so it sounds like we could function quite nicely. People have been recommending Kanata a lot, as well as Nepean, so we thought we might take a little trip to drive around those areas and see what it’s like beforehand.

I think the main price issue that keeps getting me is the tax on top. You almost feel like that’s about the same as the UK and then they throw tax on everything. I’ll have to get over that though and start trying to factor it in.

I’m glad to hear that Toronto and Ottawa are so different, I think that was my worst fear. It’s difficult moving this far with half the knowledge you need. Luckily we’re in a position to give it a year before we make a decision but with kids, I really just want to make the right one and not mess them around.