wardy_1990

which do people prefer NS or NB it seems NB is apparently more affordable according to Internet articles.

BristolUK

I would guess people who live in NB prefer NB to NS and people who live in NS prefer NS to NB while those who live in neither prefer Halifax.

bats

I preferred NB over NS. Didn't go to Halifax. I liked Fredericton, great art gallery there. There was something odd about NS. Beautiful scenery, lovely to visit but it just felt weird. The tiny bit that we saw, for a few days that is and others might like that weird thing.

wardy_1990

cheers for commenting bats, you prefer fredericton ton to Monxton and sain john

bats

That's not what I said at all

wardy_1990

cheers

BristolUK

I would prefer to visit Fredericton than Moncton but prefer to live in Moncton.

MillieF

Sounds like a plan...I'm going to put the kettle on.

I actually always thought I would prefer to live in Moncton than Fredericton, but having visited Saint John I think it's more 'me'. It felt like a 'proper' City, vibrant and alive with commutable towns/villages on the outskirts. It has rubbish weather...and that's saying something in Atlantic Canada! However it doesn't have the terrible extremes that we have. They have snow and freezing temperatures, but ten degrees warmer than ours...they have hot humid foggy summers,but ten degrees cooler than ours.

I became a fan of Saint John. This surprised me.

My son has a number of friends who are now studying in Moncton, and Saint John, and one thing that has definitely become clear to me is that those in what are called "the core Cities " interchange all the time.

We are Special in the East...but possibly one size doesn't fit all.

BristolUK

I don't remember if you know but NB was targeted because the equity from my Bristol house was to be used to buy a home and a rental property for income. Also because the stepkids could continue their schooling (from Quebec) in French.
All three cities were possible but central Fredericton left less money for the rental. Saint John seemed to have a lot of horrible looking rental properties and more spread out too - awkward with no transport. Moncton was the Goldilocks of the three.

At the time, there didn't seem a great deal of difference in weather. One got more snow, the other fog, the other rain....that sort of thing.

According to currentresults.com Saint John gets 94" of snow annually, Fredericton 99" (only 5" difference) and Moncton 111".
Annual Rainfall - Moncton/Fredericton 44"/42" and Saint John 51".
Moncton gets most Sun, then Fredericton then Saint John.

The way I look at the snowfall - Moncton getting 111" a year instead of 99" - is it's either 2 more snowfalls each winter or the same number but an extra couple of inches half a dozen times a year. Since I use a contractor to clear it, there's no difference for me.

Of course it was hell when I had to physically shovel the stuff myself.

scrubbedexpat133

I lived in NB for 8 years. 4 in Moncton 4 in Riverview. I moved to Windsor Ontario 2 years ago. I am a trucker. Worked long distance for the first 4 and regional for the latter. I am happy to answer any questions you may have about the industry here.
I will start by saying the wages will be a pittance compared to anything in AB. I worked with a lad who moved back from Edmonton to Moncton. He was on concrete.. 28 an hour and overtime after 8 or 10 can't remember in AB,. Same job in Moncton 16 per hour... Over.... what? Over time? Not familiar with that sorry. He also pointed out that apart from housing the cost of living was about the same for most things and cheaper/ more choices in AB. He went back West.

I would highly recommend that you visit first to see if NB or NS is for you. Most skilled/educated people up and go to points west. This is due to lack of opportunity, crap wages and crap conditions.

Dont let the cheap property fool you. Houses are cheaper. Everything else is more expensive. Some things are legalized theft! Plenty of other threads about that. Get used to paying more and having a lot less choice. We had electricity bills in the colder months of $400 and up. New build townhouse with 2 people living there. Dont underestimate how much you will spend just to exist in NB never mind live.

The schools are not that great. NB Anglophone 2nd worst by most measures in Canada. A lot of the locals are not surprisingly thick as...
2/3 of adults in NB are functionally illiterate. Quite sad really.
NB is one if not the poorest province in Canada. NS, NLand PEI not much better. The public services suffer as a result. There was an article on CBC news the other day about 15000 people in the Fredericton area do not have a GP. Fredericton area is less than 100 000 people. My experience of the healthcare service was bloody awful. I have problems with my knees. Very long waiting times for an appointment (6-7 months) and then 5 months waiting for a scan, 6 more months for another appointment to be told that there is nothing that can be done. Here in ON I waited 2 weeks for an appointment, 2 weeks for a scan and was told that there are a range of treatments available to me and that I could begin treatment the following week. Angry does not start to describe it.

Life in NB is limited if you like going out, arts, live music, sports etc. Moncton has most things that you would need on a day to day basis shops wise and there are a few pubs and restaurants on Main St that are decent. They are lively on Fri and Sat but dead outside of that. There are no beer gardens and you cant take your kids. It doesnt take long to get bored with them.

Going beyond that it is an 8 hour drive to Boston or 10 hours to Montreal for big city stuff. Not something that you would do on any sort of regular basis. Going on holiday after you have explored the region will involve long expensive often multiple flights or very very long drives. You will likely spend your 2 weeks holiday visiting the family. Forget cheap Euro culture weekends or affordable beach holidays. They just dont exist.
Atlantic Canada is mostly rural. Dont think that equates to pretty and quaint idylls to be discovered. They are just a string of vinyl houses and maybe Tim Hortons or a petrol station in the middle.

Atlantic Canada is perfectly nice for the age that your kids do are now. They seem to grow up slower than the UK, however once they get to their teens I cant imagine that they would thank you for it and may well be itching to leave before Uni age. They might not be drinking cider in the park, smashing windows and setting fire to beach huts but they might grow up being a bit dull and a bit thick.

Most immigrants stay for a few years and then leave due to a lack of opportunity and diversity. I firmly believe that a lot of this is down to the attitude of the people there. You can live there for a lifetime and you would still be as they say from away. Even as a white English speaking male (by this I mean the least discriminated against demo) I was never really accepted. Many immigrants have skills and knowledge that they never get to use as they are viewed as inferior. The reality is that in NB they are a long way behind in a lot of ways. Get used to answering the same 3 questions - Where are you from? How long have you been here? Do you like it? sometimes you get the 4th - When are you leaving? Dont mistake the locals being friendly at you for being friendly towards you. They are just curious as you are a novelty. People are generally quite insular not really friendly at all. My Mrs noticed how differently people treat me here vs in NB. Not everyone in NB is thick and racist hence the Mrs however you would easily be forgiven for thinking that. Her words not mine!

There are many good things about life in NB but there are plenty of negatives as well. Given my time over I would not have moved there, I dont regret it but if I never went back there it would be a day too soon.

Also you mentioned that you you are in your late 30s so this will be a final move. With all due respect that is one heck of a commitment to make especially to Atlantic Canada. I am the same age as you.

wardy_1990

cracking reply cheers, I thought said 30s we have literally just turned 30 so that is me saying we have peaked after this move for moving lol.
well I respect your honesty I imagine when I show my berta wife this she will say ontario or sask is next, we are also eyeing Scotland so we have options and a year to explore.
I drove frac sand in the oilfield then mixers and really was blessed with the hourly rate in Alberta, I knew I would be taking a pay cut.
​​​​​​ j nearly took a job driving mixer in Ottawa and kind of wished I had before moving back as it would of maybe had me satisfied that I saw enough to compare properly.
what's your home life like now you still doing otr?

scrubbedexpat133

​​​​​​I misunderstood the 30s 🤣 I run regionally. Mon - Fri home every night weekends off. Paid hourly start to finish. Like having a job in the UK again 🇬🇧😀


​​​​​

wardy_1990

that's the secret to Canada right there for trucking, they seem hard to find amongst all the big carriers. I never had a license in UK for HGV, which do you prefer? when I spoke to my brother I definitely worked longer than he did 90 hours over 2 weeks?! sometimes I would hit that in 6 days.

scrubbedexpat133

It is a bit difficult to say which I prefer. UK is less hours and lots more holiday. Here the money is better and it's a lot less stressful. Facilities on the road are massively better here.

Quite often in the UK you would be offered a cuppa and a butty etc. Only once in all of the places I went to all over North America was I offered a coffee.

If you want a similar gig to what I have now you will need to be somewhere that has the population and commerce /industries to supply. In Atlantic Canada these types jobs are few and far between. If they are worth having the locals have them sewn up and it's dead man's shoes.

BristolUK

I can never compete with Alex' knowledge on the work front as I have never had to work in Canada.

But the fact that I could retire in NB at age 48 and using an equity of £123,000 from my house sale in Bristol to buy a nice detached house and a duplex in the city of Moncton and then live on an income that only once exceeded $20k for a family of four probably tells it's own tale of how affordable things can be.

I could not have done this West of Atlantic Canada. I'm not suggesting anyone else does it but it does show there is room for some halfway point where one could maybe work fewer hours or in less of a rat race scenario but make up the shortfall with rental income from still cheap property. Or just live without the toys.

Using those pay rates of $28ph and $16ph and multiplying by a 40 hour week - overtime may well make a big difference but if you want a work-life balance do you want that? - and then adjusting for the tax differences, the net pay in Alberta is $44k and for NB $33k. A difference of $11k a year.

A quick google on average house prices shows Edmonton about $350k and Moncton $180k. Does the extra $11k make that more manageable? Obviously with overtime it would but how many hours a week do you want to work?

We are now four adults with three incomes, two of them OAS/GIS and one part-timer but we live very comfortably not having rent or a mortgage. The lower price of housing can make an enormous difference. But for the pandemic, I'd be looking forward to taking the family to France for two weeks in a couple of months. That's when we'd get the scenery and culture, because the overall lower cost of living would enable it.

Between me and my wife (and with her in particular that was an awful lot) I have zero complaints about the medical stuff - cost of prescriptions aside. All of Canada complains of a doctor shortage.
I found some figures up to 2015. The number of Doctors per 100,000 for Canada overall is 228. NB is 222 which is not as good as Quebec and Alberta (242/237) but better than Ontario's 220. Statscan has NB ahead of Ontario too, although their figure goes only to 2013.

I have a post here in 2018 when me and Alex had a similar discussion and according to a Moneysense study Moncton had a better doctor/resident ratio than the rest of NB, the same as Vancouver and better than Toronto.

Funnily enough, I see I made a similar post in 2016 as well when Moneysense's latest study showed Moncton "slumping" to 28th position out of 180 which was still very good.

It just shows that there's often not that much difference between provinces where you would expect there to be and that there's also some cities within a province outstripping the province. We all have different experiences.