dbd33

It's a bit grim. The one at the Welfare Mall (opposite the Matty Eckler pool) is cleaner.

dingbat

I wouldn't want to, but have had to post divorce. With four kids at the time and less than that coming in, I had to go the food bank in the end. Embarrassing.

nfitz

Well, it's an old building, and not the newest interior. But it always seems clean enough - I never stick to the floors I've certainly seen a lot worse! Ah yes, forgot the Food Basics in Gerrard Square - I'd say they are about the same really. Though Gerrard Square is under a major redevelopment, I happened to be in there yesterday, and was quite impressed with how far it's come! There's a huge Home Depot in there now, and a good-size Staples upstairs. Winners is about to open a very large store upstairs. Zellars is getting a main entrance right off Gerrard Street, that entire streetscape looks a lot more civilized now that they've put windows all along Gerrard Street. Not sure if the Zellars and the Food Basics are going to be renovated or not; but pretty much the entire rest of the mall has been, or is being. But I think we digress ...

Nick

sydney

I am here in Ontario on a work permit (we haven't yet got our PPR or record of landing) and two of my children attend school, one eight year old and one four year old in kindergarten. Your eldest will be able to start kindergarten with no problems.

dbd33

Not so much. Food Basics, No Frills and Price Chopper are pretty desperate places. Renovated or not, the Welfare Mall is a dump. Even the Loblaws on Leslie is pretty run down, the a car breaker's yard opposite hints that it's not on one of the city's better blocks. If these are the sorts of places one can live on forty grand then it might be better to look elsewhere.

nfitz

I heartily disagree! I certainly wouldn't call it a dump! Compared to other places I've seen, in India, in Cambodia, in Thailand, in Indonesia, and even in parts of the USA, I'd say it's a half-decent place to live! Lots of families. Low crime rates. Safe neighbourhoods. Sure a heck a lot more liveable than the unending dullness of suburbia such as Mississauga. Yes, Leslie and Eastern is somewhat industrial ... but what with the Hell's Angels HQ just down the road, you know your not going to get mugged! And in some of those neighbourhoods, you can live on a lot less than $40,000 ... heck there are 3-bedroom houses in some of those areas for less than $200,000 still .... but a few feet away will be a cluster of houses at $400,000 to $500,000. It's quite a mixed neighbourhood.

Nick

AnyaT

$40,000 for a family of four in Toronto? Ugh. That is approx what HB and I lived on when we first moved up here. We were fortunate enough to find a good deal on a 1 bedroom apartment and, similar to the OP, did not have a car (still don’t). So it was do-able but not always fun. Frankly, I don’t want to think about what it would have been like with 2 kids to feed and clothe. I realize there are families that make do with $40,000 or much less, as other posters have mentioned, but I wouldn’t choose to do it, which it seems to be the case of the OP.

Also, I don’t think $1200 is at all out of line for a 2 bedroom apartment in Toronto. You can go to www.viewit.ca and get an idea of what sort of apartments you can get for what price.

dbd33

It was specifically the Welfare Mall I mentioned as being a dump, not the entire east end. Still, I'll leave that faint praise to damn it.

1066

How would, for example, 20k work out in NS?

nfitz

Odd, I'd have thought Leslie and Eastern was a lot more dumpish than Gerrard Square; now I must confess, I never saw it before renovations started (which seem to have been going on forever now); but I don't see much difference between that Home Depot and any other ... that's certainly the main anchor these days ... and the cause of much of the vehicular traffic heading in and out. The portions where the original floor and ceilings have yet to be redone certainly feel very 1970's ... but I wouldn't say a dump!

Nick

AnyaT

Even worse. I lived on approx $30,000 in Halifax by myself (i.e., no HB or dependants) for a year and it was not fun. Contrary to what you might expect, utility bills and food are not noticeably cheaper in NS, and are in some cases more expensive. Apartments can be quite cheap if you live outside the city centre, but unless you can manage to schedule your life around infrequent bus schedules you will have to buy a car, which eats up most of what you would save by living further out.

Have you been offered a job for $20,000 in NS? I don't know your situation (age, training/experience, dependants, etc), but would suggest a place that offered that sort of salary is trying to pull a fast one on the new immigrant. My first job out of university paid more than that and I would not take a company seriously that offered what are essentially poverty-line wages for a full-time position demanding some sort of work experience.

dbd33

Before being a Home Depot that space was empty for a while, before that it was a Sears store. The other stores were all dollar stores and the like so, I suppose, a Winners (TJMaxx in the US/UK) is a step up market, though not very far. That's a tough block for stores, the pizza-pizza lost its franchise and is now pizza-pide (or some such), the perogie store went bust and is now Tina's nails (actually a rub and tug), the Korean greengrocers went bust and is empty. The only thriving enterprise there is the Turkish Canadian Islamic Centre. Even the beggar outside the liquor store bitches that times have been better. All in all, it's rather like Cricklewood.

Biiiiink

For some reason it's called T *K* Maxx in the UK. I can just picture the meeting about that one... "What shall we call our operation in the UK? Something radical, new and fresh...?"

1066

Thanks, and no, I haven't been offered a job....it's just that past posts have led me to think that this is about the best I can expect....

dbd33

Oh, sorry. I don't know a lot about shopping.