Manitoba?
 

Hello Everyone

I am a 33 year old industrial electrician living in Cornwall, wishing to emmigrate along with my wife and 2 children. My wife has a diploma (a degree by the time it goes through) in health/social welfare.

I have no contacts in Canada so have a very open mind as to where to head for.

Before doing any searches, I associated Manitoba as a place you fly over during a holiday and would never be somewhere to visit! However, the impression I get from their provincial website is that it seems to be very positive towards immigration and a place where the property is quite cheap. Please could anyone share any experiences they have with Manitoba as a place to emmigrate to?

Best regards
Darren and Sarah James

Re: Manitoba?
 

hi darren and sarah

i am hopefully starting a job in Manitoba early next year. i have been offered a civil technician's post in Winnipeg. i don't know a great deal about the area, but i've done some research on the net. It looks a really nice place, plenty of schools and parks for the children and no 2 hour traffic jams for me on the M6. The houses are really cheap £60 - 90,000. My visa application is going through now so i'm keeping my fingers crossed. i'm going with the 'nothing ventured nothing gained' frame of mind.

Re: Manitoba?
 

Thanks for your reply, your job offer puts you at a massive advantage, may I ask how you got the job, was it through British contacts?

A question for anyone:
The cheap housing in this area is obviously appealing but does this reflect the prosperity in this area?

Regards

Re: Manitoba?
 

Manitoba is not the most prosperous of provinces, and property prices reflect that. Also, we think its been cold in ontario the last few days (-15 here this morning) but a manitoban would be laughing at that, wandering round in shorts and a Tshirt, wondering why everyone else was bundled up! The capital isnt refered to as Winterpeg by the rest of the country for no reason:)

Re: Manitoba?
 

They are really promoting Manitoba on TV at the moment....looks nice from the pictures. It does get cold there but I think it is dry cold, not like in the east where we get a damp cold but not as damp as UK! Winnipeg sure lives up to its name! Winterpeg. Plus I have heard they have mosquitoes as big as Helicopters in the summer! I also hear it is a very friendly place to live.....the license plates say Friendly Manitoba. So I guess if you get a job there you maybe happy....

Re: Manitoba?
 

Hello Darren and Sarah,

I emmigrated to Winnipeg from Bournemouth about 11 years ago. I was able to come here as my wife is Canadian. As has been said, house prices are much more reasonable here. You can get a 3 bedroom bungalow with a full basement in a middle class neighbourhood starting at about $125,000. And the standard of living is much better too.

Winters are very cold, but it is dry cold which does not chill you to the bones like the cold does in England. Also the houses all have triple glazed windows and central heating which is not as expensive as in England.

Summers are hotter than in England but most homes have central air-conditioning. Yes, there are mosquitos - lots of them - but not as bad as is often made out.

As we are in the middle of the prairies, it is terribly flat for miles and miles. The scenery does not seem to change. There is no seaside, but we do have lakes as big as seas! And if you are interested in hunting and fishing, this is the place to be.

I don't think you two will have a problem find a job. Social workers jobs are often in the newspapers. I also have seen jobs for industrial electrians. Employers really like the training of workers from the UK as they do not have training as good here. Friends of ours emmigrated here 3 years ago. He is a forklift mechanic. He got here by being sponsored by a forklift company. I think there is a chance that you could do the same. Here is the site of the main local newspaper where you could find current job postings www.winnipegfreepress.com.

If I can be of any further assistance, please send me a personal message.

Good luck!
Adrian

Re: Manitoba?
 

Another plus about Winnipeg is the lakes.

http://laverendryetrail.mb.ca/lwb_corridor.html

Grand beach was voted one of the top ten beaches in North America by Playboy Magazine.

http://www.mts.net/~harrow/naturist.htm

Re: Manitoba?
 

And you might want to check out the manitoba community profiles
http://www.communityprofiles.mb.ca/


Also from this site you can find a lot of Manitoba info
http://www.winnipeg.ca/census1996/pages/wpg.htm

And this great link for the Manitoban Provincial Nominees Program
http://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/immigrat...gration/2.html

& http://www.gov.mb.ca/finance/reports/pdf/advantage.pdf Go to page 15!! :D (As I know you are thinking of another province too - you might like to see the financial stuff!!)


All the best
Clare
(an envious B.C.er!!)

Re: Manitoba?
 

Hi
We moved here to Winterpeg, -25c wind chill -46 currently, in Nov 98 haven't seen the blizzards of 97 yet but what the hell weather is weather right.

Winnipeg is very cultural, Can support 32 different languages in major call centres. So if you want to learn about another culture you'll find it here.

Downtown is 20-30 minutes from everywhere in Winnipeg. After Winnipeg its flat countryside and small towns for the next 8 hours driving in any direction some even further. oh there is some hills about 2-3 hours away but as Winnipeg is 700+ feet above sea level already there isn't a lot

Education for the kids well you can go as far as you like kids aren't stuck in their age grades they can go forward or back a grade if need be.


I've said it before and I'll say it again, before deciding on a place, decided on your family activities and needs. Getting a house and making a home is dependant on you being happy. 99% of us can find a job, a house etc but that isn't what makes you happy day in day out.

So what non-work related activities will make you happy in your new home?


http://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/immigrat...rvices/7e.html

industrial electrician
http://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/immigrat...s/trade13.html

note it says
applicant must have a minimum of 6 years (9600 hours) this 9600 hours includes every minute you got paid in this postion. If you worked 12-16 hours a day it all counts here. Not calendar years

Social worker
http://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/immigrat...ces/pro28.html

Re: Manitoba?
 

Hi Grah

Thanks for the info, your question- "So what non work related activities will make you happy in your new home?"
That is a really thought provoking question! I havent got time to answer it right now, and I am going away for Xmas- let me get back to you on that one!!

Merry Xmas to you all!

Regards

Darren





Regards

Darren

Re: Manitoba?
 

Slight understatement today.

Swan River Small town between the Riding and Duck mountains ( yes Mountains in Manitoba)

The temperature was

http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/foreca...tml?weq&unit=i
Date Hour Weather Temp. (°F) WindChill
22 Dec. 2004 06:00 CST Not Reported -53 -83
22 Dec. 2004 04:00 CST Not Reported -58 N/A

In Alert the most northern named place

Currently Observed on: 22 Dec. 2004 at 1:00 PM EST

Clear
Temp.: -24°C
Pressure: 102.2
kPa
Visibility: 8km
Humidity: 76%
WindChill: -36
DewPoint: -27°C
Wind: W22
km/h


So be prepared for those days you have to wrap up warm. Oh yes schools are open and the kids in Winnipeg wrapped up and did their crossing patrols in a mild -32c -26F this morning just like they do ever morning.

I think the logic is
"If its warm enough for outdoor hockey its warm enough to go to school"

Re: Manitoba?
 

Hubby has great pleasure in telling me that it's warmer at the top of the Eiger than here at the moment! It's perfectly liveable though if you wrap up warm. I've noticed that people tend to walk quicker from a. to b. nower days! It's very easy to get frost bite within minutes but gloves and scarves are very cheap and layering several layers (the inner layers should be thin ones) and it'll be fine. We have a Brit meetup group in Winnipeg and most of use agree that the cold in the UK seemed worse because it's a damp cold which seems to really make you shiver but here it's very dry and the snow ploughs are out pretty often, gritting lorries and even mini ploughs that scoot up and down the pathways keep everything nice and clear, in the built up areas anyway, I expect areas not close to the bus and highway routes wouldn't have quite the same service. A word of warning though about cost of living estimates and government websites etc. They tend to be 5 years out of date and the prices are really going up now. A good website to check out is www.webview360.com. You can choose an area and it lists the prices ranges of the houses and then select one and see what they look like inside. This will give a better idea of what you can get for your money and compare areas at the same time and get an idea on types of buildings. Another good resource is http://www.winnipeg.ca/census1996/pages/wpg.htm which splits the Winnipeg area into neighbourhoods and you can compare the average size and cost of a house, the average salary, citizenship and language of the inhabitants etc. Again, the data is pretty old but is useful to get a feel for the demograhics. Another website I like to use is http://www.communityprofiles.mb.ca/ where you can learn more about each area.

To sum up, I love Winnipeg and the son is very happy and we settled in very quickly. Hubby had more difficulty find work but is now working on a contract for IBM so hopefully we can look forward to a more prosperous future. We did find that although they (the province) are looking for skilled workers it can be quite frustrating when most of the jobs available are for entry level non skilled positions. Call centres are big here because the labour is cheap and a large proportion of companies like to recruit at entry level and build the employees up from the bottom. As hubby was trying to come in at management level it was very hard so he has had to do temping work just to make ends meet. Also, there is a huge shortage of housing (bad planning and extra influx of immigrants so they reckon!) and so cost of housing is really rising. I just checked webview360 and www.comfree.com and was shocked to see that there's hardly anything for less than $170,000 now. Mind you, that's still cheap compared to other places. :o

Re: Manitoba?
 

I just found this pretty cool article on Manitoba - of course it's a huge province so if you're thinking of living here don't expect to savour all the joys in one go - but it's a good taster anyhow! http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/tra...kedwinter.html

I'm looking forward to going to the Winter Festival in a couple of weeks. A team of us are planning to go - if anyone else wants to tag along you are welcome to contact me here (link to the brit expats email, not my personal one though as it will probably be junked!!). Alternatively you are free to sign up at http://brit.meetup.com/45/ and you can keep abreast of the latest dates.

Have fun in Winterpeg! ;)

Re: Manitoba?
 

I bet Manitoba looks great on a postcard......don't worry about the cold "it's a DRY cold" ...roflmao

Re: Manitoba?
 

Joking aside, being a dry cold makes a whole host of difference. Of course, if you're caught in a down wind with no scarf or gloves then you're gonna suffer in seconds. Having engine block heaters means the cars (usually) run reliably, the buses (usually) keep going, although maybe late when it turns real shitty and the people (usually) survive. You either embrace Winter or fear it - if you fear it you certainly don't want to come to Winterpeg. :eek: Otherwise it's just great, and a good walk to the bus stop at 7.30 in the morning at - 47 C is just what the doctor ordered for blowing out them cobwebs!! ;) :cool: