Purley

There are 165 houses listed as being for sale in Regina right now on this site:

http://sk.athomecanada.com/listing_b...2&&city=Regina

If you click here:

http://sk.athomecanada.com/buyer/

and then click on City and look at the drop down, you can see what is listed in various small towns etc. Mind you, it says there are 6 houses for sale in Balgonie, but two are sold.

I assume more will come on the market. There is a bungalow for sale on the next street to me, and it has had the sign up for a couple of weeks and doesn't appear to be sold.

I work for solicitors and we have loads of real estate deals right now. Lots of people from Alberta - Calgary, Edmonton, Leduc etc. are buying houses in Regina and they say they are moving back here.

The lady I work with was talking to a real estate paralegal in one of the other firms and she had 100 real estate deals closing in May. She said she was going to quit because she could not handle the work. Apparently that law firm has now stopped accepting real estate deals for now!

I assume that houses will continue to come on the market but you have to be quick. It's never been like this before here - probably won't last!

julieandchris

Hi All,
I am not trying to put anyone off moving to saskatchewan as it is a lovely province, it definately is worth sticking it out but for 2 years but when your with a trucking company you hate and the wages are crap and the cost of living is not cheap it makes for a pretty hard 2 years. I worked at westcan and if you worked 18 hours a day for 10 straight days then you had a pretty good wage, but when the winter comes you cant get the milage in as much as summer. knowing quite a few drivers who worked for yanke say the wages are not as good as westcan and they were away all the time, there as been alot of familys had to go back just because they could not afford to live. Now the prices have rocketed and so have the house taxes i think it will be harder for new familys coming across but if you can get through 2 years it will be worth it. We have been here 3 years now and we are moving to nova scotia and I will not need to drive truck which is a blessing! Its not saskatchewan its the trucking companys, because they bring you over they think they own you, westcan once told me that the company comes 1st and the family come 2nd, which in my book is total bollox, if you can stay away from the 3 big companys, westcan, yanke and siemans group then there are some fairly good companys out here.
Having said all that its a better place to live than the uk and for us all the hardship and crap we took from westcan as been worth it.... Good luck to everyone coming over...chris & jue

June67

perfectly said julie and chris we did our time out there for siemans and we feel they were the best of a bad bunch at the time but if you can stick thru to residency it's worth it. we have had friends stay in saskatchewan, some have gone back to the UK and others have moved to other provinces so as far as the province is concerned it's an individual thing. as far as living in the prairies is concerned if you can stick the winter it's an ok place but we prefer the maritimes. ultimately it's worth it in the end. at the end of the day 'it's a means to an end' and it's still much better than Blighty!!! for any couples going out without children then I suggest the wives go in the trucks on a regular basis as the travelling and scenery is amazing, we were lucky in the respect that we both drive so we were employed as a team but for the wives stuck at home for 2 weeks at time they miss an awful lot. for doing more miles in winter you are better off running US, and it's not as bad as people lead you to believe, just double check your paperwork and you should have no worries. the US border guards were always much nicer than the canadians and the yanks in general can't do enough to help. a great investment is a laptop with US/Canada streets and trips it's easier than a map. we enjoyed the driving immensly.

Lorna_D

It's so good to hear first hand from people who have experienced the work and living. I know its going to be harder on the OH than me, he's used to driving solo, so will have to get used to sharing his small work space with a stranger and placing his trust in him to relax enough to sleep, yet the same will go for whoever he partners up with.

It must be worse than a marriage cos at least we can go into another room if we get on each others nerves. Still as you say we all have goals and this is ours.

Our children Clair and Simon are settled at the moment so not looking to go anywhere. If it doesn't work out then we would have had our grown up gap year

Member123

Have to say June I am so glad my OH is not a truck driver as it sounds like a hard life. The big difference with us is that OH starts work at 7am and finishes at 3.30pm Mon-Fri so we wont have the added pressures you lot do.
Hope you enjoy life whereever you settle and as you say anywhere is better than Blighty.

Gremmie

Hi J&C
what was so bad ??? with westcan. I'm off at the end of July to their Kamloops Terminal to start work. Please tell

julieandchris

Hi Gremmie
I can only speak for the saskatoon terminal which is where I worked, for a start the manager of the terminal did not like us brits, he used to look away when we came in and in 2 years never spoke once, a complete tosser!
We used to get all the shit work the canadians did'nt want ie the bad paying jobs, they did'nt care 1 little bit about the family it was just get in the truck and try to get as much out of you as possible, to say they preached to get us over that they were family orientated it was complete rubbish, on a few occasions if the brit drivers did'nt play ball they would starve you of work which meant no money and there were 2 familys that had to go back to the uk.If anything went wrong with the truck it was your fault and you would lose the bonus,They expect you to work all the holidays even xmas because they DO give priority to senior drivers,they dont understand that you have no family in the country and the wife and kids like you to be there once in a while. You dont get full pay until youve been there a year , I think its 95%. You have to keep written down everything you do because they were always forgetting jobs you did and wouldnt get paid. I could go on and on, I do know some of the other terminals were ok to work for but speaking to the other brit drivers at the bigger ones they were pretty much same as ours. Not trying to put you off gremmie but just telling my experience and the friends I know, out of probably 25 drivers who came to work for westcan who I know, I think there is about 3 or 4 left, the others left as soon as we got our paperwork. It could be ok at kamloops but just expect the worse and everything good is a bonus..It will be worth it in the end when you have a choice were you work....sorry for rambling....chris

Gremmie

Hi Chris, thanks for the info,as a newbie you always get the shit work,wether in the UK Switzerland or Canada. That's something one comes to expect its part of the job. But not getting paid for what you do !!! not so funny, and being blamed for everything. Must ensure that i make thourough pre trip checks. As to the 95% rate of pay,thats against Canadain Law.pure and simple. Did none of you Brits think about contacting CIC or HRSS ??? I will have to be on my gaurd then, shant make waves just look and listen gathering info. Thanks for your input

julieandchris

We all had calls from the pnp and told them exactly what was goin on, we all heard thet they were getting thrown off the pnp but it could just have been rumours. As for the shit work after a couple of years you get a little tired if it when your struggling to keep your head above water and we were all told lies and how good westcan was(NOT), In the summer months when theres not alot of work there were always about 15 uk drivers all gathered outside waiting for work, but no canadians and when you dont work you dont get paid, and when its fertilizer time they expect you to work all month without a day off and that just dont sit right with me. I think there are better companys to work for if you have a choice.......good luck

julieandchris

As for the 95% of pay it was 90% to start off and then went up to 95%, If it is against the law then you will find most companys work that way, I enquired about a job the other day and the milage rate was 35 cents a k and after 9 months went up to 38 so they all do it! I worked in europe for 10 years before we came here and the way the canadian trucking companys work they would never get away with it in the uk or europe, it will probably change but as it is now its like stepping back in time when it comes to truck driving.

Gremmie

What were WBT's rates of pay then ???? I'm single,divorced 3 kids,i've payed my allimony for the next 2 years in advance. Shit i hope i can cover my costs and save a few pennies

julieandchris

I made a mistake its a mile not a k, westcans rate was quite a bit below that but you get paid for waiting time until you go over 10 hours a day then they take your waiting time off you, just another rip off how they work. if your gonna be the first one there gremmie they might treat you good but just dont ask for a transfer to the saskatoon branch!

tajnjet

hi
Here is a link to the Warman website. http://www.townofwarman.ca/html/admin.html As you will see in 2005 there was a population of 4655 and 1552 dwellings. Since then, Warman is now booming thanks to the british drivers etc. It now has the nickname of "Little Britain". We live in Martensville, 10 mins outside Saskatoon. Martensville has a population of just over 5000 and houses have been going up all winter long to accomodate the influx of people who can no longer afford to buy in the city and the ones moving back from Alberta.
We have been here just over 2 years and have seen our house price go from $185,000 in Feb 2005 to almost $300,000 today.

tajnjet

oops, i forgot to put the link in.
http://www.townofwarman.ca/html/admin.html

lousid

Hey, I'm from Merthyr too. Merthyr can be a small place so I might know your hubby and his family? We are living in BC at the moment but possibly heading east.
Lousid