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Life in Alberta?

Life in Alberta?

Old Jun 17th 2017, 1:04 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Originally Posted by ABD79
Well that does put my mind at ease although i was originally holding out for a house in a semi-rural setting but if that means big spiders I may have to think again! Strangely snakes don't bother me. I just can't handle spiders :-/ but you have put my mind at risk as at least if they are common in rural areas I've now at least got the option of suburban/city life to escape them! I'm off to bed now and I'm sure I'll think of plenty more questions as I drift off to sleep that I may ask tomorrow if you don't mind If you think of anything else at all please feel free to share! Literally anything to do with relocating and life there. It's all a huge help! Thank you so much so far!!!
No worries. :-) If I can answer any questions I will- though I realise the life you want here is quite different to the one I have. Haha but same area-ish! :-)
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 4:30 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Hi - just a heads up that urban vs rural in Alberta is quite different to urban vs rural in the UK. As others have said it is good if you can visit to see it for yourself. I don't see the same kind of 'village' feel in rural areas here like you get in the UK, although I'm living in Calgary suburbia

Type in your house hunting criteria on realtor.ca and there isn't a great deal for your budget within an hour's commute of Calgary in terms of acreages.

Other options to check out would be the satellite towns around Calgary: Cochrane, Okotoks, maybe out towards Black Diamond/Turner Valley way, Crossfield, Carstairs, Olds, Didsbury, Chestermere, Langdon, Airdrie (although that'a a city) - most of these are bedroom communities with the same type of housing you will get in Calgary but on a smaller scale built-up wise, and lots of residents commute in to Calgary for work by car (cause we don't have proper regional transit yet). Canmore might be pushing it time wise and also price wise. Same for Bragg Creek.

[Edit: found this link which shows you the local municipalities - hover over the municipality link at the top of the page and you get a short profile for each: http://calgaryregion.ca/crp/calgary-...palities.html]

Or look at communities within the City that are close to: Fish Creek Park, Nose Hill Park, Bowmont Park, the one down near Lakeview and Glenmore reservoir - these are all lovely natural environment areas where your kids can roam and explore. Or check out the lake communities (to get your beach fix otherwise its a long drive!)- Arbour Lake, Lake Bonavista, Sundance, Chaparral, Auburn Bay, etc. The bonus is your husband's commute time will be shorter and you might even get to see him in the evenings

Also bear in mind if you are an hour's drive from the City, what will that drive be like in the middle of winter...the commute to work...when you need to get the kids to school....or to clubs and sports stuff or friends houses....or just to get the shopping done.

The main 'big' hospitals in Calgary are: Foothills (NW), Rockyview (SW), South Health Campus (new in far SE), Alberta Childrens (NW) and Peter Lougheed (NE) - you can check out where these are on the map to give your husband an idea of locations.

Oh, and compared to the UK, we hardly see any spiders in our house

Good luck!

Last edited by Flossie and Jim; Jun 17th 2017 at 5:02 am.
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 4:36 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

If you love where you live why would you want to move? I know own you mentioned a big wide world and all that, but you get vacations to explore that!

We have been in Alberta for 12 years and live on 2 acres outside of Red Deer, we love our acreage, we are bored of our bit of Alberta, had we chosen nearer Calgary with more Chinook we may not be quite so bored. As it is, it seems to be 3 months of rush rush fit all the fun stuff in and all the stuff you can do outside and then hibernate, our hobbies are cars, cars and cars. There is a distinct lack of things to do after Labour Day (1st weekend in Sept) and before Victoria Day (May Long, end of May), in our area, again Calgary would have been a better choice.

I feel pretty safe walking around here, there are wide open spaces and in certain parts/suburbs there are walking trails, parks and green spaces, if you like people and neighbour's then don't rule out city living as many places especially older subdivisions have plenty of green spaces.
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 4:38 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Originally Posted by ABD79
To imagine him going to school in America and doing drills each week where he has to hide in case a gunman comes in fills me with absolute fear.
You should be aware that we do have 'lockdown' drills at school here - my kid's elementary has had two or three this year.

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Old Jun 17th 2017, 5:52 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Originally Posted by Stinkypup
I may have missed it and if so I apologise but have you actually been to Canada ABD? It is always wise to visit an area to see whether it ticks your boxes or not- maybe visit a few
potential target cities/towns, maybe not just in AB. Forget the Okanagan though if you aren't keen on snakes or spiders as we do get the odd Black Widow and Rattlesnakes
Hello, I have visited a couple of times, not Alberta though, and my husband has been a few times himself. And we have friends throughout Canada (again, just not in Alberta). With three children it would cost a lot to visit with that money better going towards a move. Although my husband would visit before hand. But having lived in the US, moving to Alberta without visiting wouldn't bother me at all...there's no doubt it would be better than living in Texas And I did enjoy Texas. We are quite laid back and open minded. Texas, and America in general, just isn't somewhere we want to bring up children :-/
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 5:56 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Originally Posted by Flossie and Jim
You should be aware that we do have 'lockdown' drills at school here - my kid's elementary has had two or three this year.
I didn't know that. Is it something people see as a real and possible threat do you know? Or something that's just done as a precaution measure just in case? And would you know at all if that's something that's perhaps done mostly in a city area but outside it's not? Or is that just the standard thing like in the US? I know it would scare my little ones, (they'd worry it meant a bad person was likely to try and come and hurt them at school), but on the same token, I know it would be better for the school to be prepared. While gun crime is obviously miles better than the US, I know it's still a factor there. Do you hear of much happening gun wise around Calgary? Sorry for all the questions! Guns have always been a big fear of mine :-/

Edit: just found this about gun crime in Calgary...bit scary :-/ https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.3364874

Last edited by ABD79; Jun 17th 2017 at 5:58 am.
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 5:59 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Originally Posted by ABD79
I didn't know that. Is it something people see as a real and possible threat do you know? Or something that's just done as a precaution measure just in case? And would you know at all if that's something that's perhaps done mostly in a city area but outside it's not? Or is that just the standard thing like in the US? I know it would scare my little ones, (they'd worry it meant a bad person was likely to try and come and hurt them at school), but on the same token, I know it would be better for the school to be prepared. While gun crime is obviously miles better than the US, I know it's still a factor there. Do you hear of much happening gun wise around Calgary? Sorry for all the questions! Guns have always been a big fear of mine :-/
I can't answer much about the school part but the majority of gun crimes in Calgary are gangs shooting other gangs (and even then it's usually limited to the crap parts of town), it's certainly not something to be overly concerned with.

Since living here I've never personally seen anything concerning apart from some peace officers chasing Teens for fare dodging 😝

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Old Jun 17th 2017, 7:38 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Is your husband as negative on the US as you seem to be? It's a massive place, and not one big Texas. California and Oregon both give Alberta a run for its money, and Trump won't be around forever. The other caveat is that if you are "genuinely happy with your life" in the UK, it does impact your homesickness when you move, as you become acutely aware of what you're missing. Having said that, Alberta is a fine province and a good place for kids. Not much in the way of spiders or creepy crawlies, but plenty of mosquitos during the glorious but brief summers. Winter cold is not an issue as everything is built around the car, and shopping centres. Plenty of winter sports if you dress warm, and of course it's not the Arctic, there are mild days and weeks too. One other consideration is the sea, which is world away when living in AB, but there are lakes and mountains.
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 8:34 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

+1 to visiting and seeing what you think, no point in spend £25k or so on a move if Canada isn't for you.

OP, would this be a company transfer? If so, this Wiki article might be useful - Intra-Company Transfer-Canada : British Expat Wiki

HTH.
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 10:53 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

I'd be curious to know what job your husband does that gives you the opportunity to move to Canada, America and /or Australia. All as company transfers, too!
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 11:47 am
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Originally Posted by Dorothy
I'd be curious to know what job your husband does that gives you the opportunity to move to Canada, America and /or Australia. All as company transfers, too!
He works for a global leading company that takes care of oil and gas, health care and electricity amongst a few other things. They encourage transfers to gain new experiences of how they operate in other countries so that that experience can be applied elsewhere if moved again. He's on a managerial programme also which gives him further opportunity should be wish to take a transfer.
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 1:47 pm
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Originally Posted by ABD79
That sounds amazing! Thank you! May I ask where you live and if there are other places you can recommend where we can have a little land but still get in to Calgary easily? My husband's job would mean he'd be heavily based in Calgary but he's used to driving as his work depends on it so we'd happily live within an hour of Calgary. I've been looking online but everything I've found so far seems to be typical suburbia if within an hour of Calgary or else it's fairly far out but with land. One of our primary goals with a move is to have a small amount of land (doesn't matter if it's a lot but it comes down to budget which would be under $520,000) and I really want to stick to the land idea as I want our little boys to have room to just run and play. Where we live in the uk we have so much for them to do so close to where we live...beaches, forests, cities (4 within 30 minutes to any one), so I would rather have land close to Calgary and have them be free to run and explore than a typical suburban home with a small yard and the same distance from Calgary (if that makes sense). Any help would be greatly welcomed! Thank you!
Canmore is around an hour from Calgary and, within an hour of Calgary, you will be able to find anything from a half acre lot to a quarter section (160 acres).

However, popping to the shops will be a bit of an issue and you will definitely need two cars.
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 2:00 pm
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Originally Posted by ABD79
Funnily enough I've been looking at Okotoks tonight (obviously found nothing in our price range)� ���� We need to be within an hour of Calgary at most because of my husband's job, (he'd be Calgary based if we move as he works out of hospitals so needs to be where the biggest density of them is). A hobby farm has always been my dream though. But, and as you highlighted, finding one for under $520,000 within an hour of Calgary could be tough! If we could just find a few acres of nothingness but a house and create a hobby farm we'd be happy. I fear it would be one of those rarities though that when you find one there's not a job position at the same time...and when there is a job position there's not the house you're looking for. I can live in hope though right? If you can think of anywhere that may suit please say! The more information the better!� ����
The further west from Calgary, the more expensive the rural properties are. The further east from Calgary, the less expensive. NW of Calgary is the most expensive for rural properties, SE of Calgary is the cheapest.

All of these are within an hour of Calgary and you search the site yourself for others:

Balzac acreage

Wheatland acreage

Okotoks acreage

Gladys-Ridge acreage

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Old Jun 17th 2017, 2:07 pm
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Originally Posted by ABD79
I didn't know that. Is it something people see as a real and possible threat do you know? Or something that's just done as a precaution measure just in case? And would you know at all if that's something that's perhaps done mostly in a city area but outside it's not? Or is that just the standard thing like in the US? I know it would scare my little ones, (they'd worry it meant a bad person was likely to try and come and hurt them at school), but on the same token, I know it would be better for the school to be prepared. While gun crime is obviously miles better than the US, I know it's still a factor there. Do you hear of much happening gun wise around Calgary? Sorry for all the questions! Guns have always been a big fear of mine :-/

Edit: just found this about gun crime in Calgary...bit scary :-/ https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.3364874
Lockdown drills are a regular thing here. What you need to realise is that, unlike the UK, the schools do not have fences around them and, in essence, anyone can walk into most schools whenever they want. Just like in banks, the tellers are not "secured" behind bullet proof glass. You simply speak to them over a counter and can hand things directly to them.

If you live rurally, you will almost certainly obtain some sort of firearm. My two girls obtained their firearms licences as soon as they were able to (12)
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Old Jun 17th 2017, 3:42 pm
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Default Re: Life in Alberta?

Originally Posted by Almost Canadian
Lockdown drills are a regular thing here. What you need to realise is that, unlike the UK, the schools do not have fences around them and, in essence, anyone can walk into most schools whenever they want. Just like in banks, the tellers are not "secured" behind bullet proof glass. You simply speak to them over a counter and can hand things directly to them.

If you live rurally, you will almost certainly obtain some sort of firearm. My two girls obtained their firearms licences as soon as they were able to (12)
I'm hoping requiring a firearm you mean for wildlife purposes just in case? Or do you mean you need one to protect yourself from a home invasion or something? :-/ Yes the banks here are starting to do away with the glass. I can't imagine schools not having fences though...I always assumed that would just be naturally done anywhere in the world in first world countries and in very populated areas especially. Well, you learn something new every day!
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