I think you may have lost touch a little Iain because In our experience things have gone up incredibly so, not just property.

If I can start with property if you could buy a house 8 years ago for £90k, today it is nearly £250k, hows about that for a jump ?

In the last 8 years Council Tax (Oldies might remember it as rates) has gone up by an average of 10% per annum, i.e. more than doubled

All utilities have gone up between 5% and 10% on average and this year Gas prices have gone up over 25%.

Petrol prices were around 60p per litre in 1998 and are now around 95p per litre (60% inc)

These are just a few examples and most peoples salaries are not going up by inflation which officially is and has been 3% +/- a little in the last 10 years but anyone wit half a brain knows that Government inflation stats do not include some of the essentials in life.

I came with less than $5k, and Im alright. Granted I had a job set up and no family concerns, but although its nice to have a chunk of cash, you can survive without. Many people in canada get by on a pittance..if they have too. Incomes down in the $20k range are not uncommon. I'm not recomending it though, and I'm sure its not what the average prospective immigrant has in mind.

In my area the average has increased from $80k to $250k since I landed, and thats not a boom area. Calgary went up 55% last year alone! taxes here are a percentage of property value...see above! In 5 years my Hydro bill has increased from $80 a month to $150. Thats before deregulisation and market pricing hit. Heating oil has increased in line with gasoline...see below 34c now 106c per liter...311% "Same shit, Shinier bucket"

Good for you Iain....its nice to hear that things worked out well for you
I suppose I was basing my opinions on my own situation, ie married, 2 small kids, giving up an established life, with a nice(ish)home and a semi-decent salary.........................and I wouldn't dream of risking all that to come here with only a small amount of dosh to set up with. We wanted to have more to show for our yrs of hard work by coming here, (and at the very least, a similar standard of living............certainly not to be worse off.)

Exactly, all I am saying is that prices in the UK are far from stagnant and it always seems like earnings do not reflect increases in expenses, I am sure it is the same in Canada.

Property prices maybe on the up over there but for several reasons...

First of all property needs to meet the demand of the immigrant population, especially into popular areas such as Calgary, Vancouver and so on and for this to happen without massive rises in prices house building related labour must not be in short supply, this is one of the major reasons behind property price rises in the UK, another is shortage of land without encraoching onto the Farming Land.

I am not going to argue back and too about salaries, costs, etc because its upto each potential immigrant to assess the costs and potential earnings involved depending on the area they are hoping to move to and make a decision one way or the other.

Yes it shocked us too......12 years ago we lived in Canada, and it was dirt cheap, houses seemed cheap and the cost of living was far less than it was in the UK. When we returned last year, we were amazed at how much we were spending, going to the shops required organ donation, however one year on, I think we are used to it, and just accept it. maybe if we go back to the Uk we may find things cheaper....Now wouldn't that be a bonus..... I THINK NOT!

I held back from posting just to see how things panned out and to get a feel for what others have contributed before I start my crazed babbling.....firstly if you want to see a track record of successful migration to BC search my earlier posts. It can be done, you can start from zilch and get ahead, and I'm not trying to ram that down anyone's throat, but I do get kinda tired of the 'no jobs in BC' cliche.

Iain says 'same shit, shinier bucket' and I agree, kind of, to a certain extent. The daily problems with hassles, beaurocracy, mundane stuff of life, is much the same and until you are here in 'the program' you'll never see that junk and how laborious it can be, everyday life is just life, etc. Life is so different in BC, it's light years away from UK life, make no mistake how much more shinier the bucket can be. I do like the 'priceless' comment though

The theme of this thread is to confirm that, yes, BC is expensive, compared to the ROC and for good reason. It's a hedonistic paradise and thus attracts people with wads of fun-cash and wealthy retirees who want to live well, have fun. Peoples move west, they are ambitious and want a change, so they incline to move west, always have, prolly always will. Any basic level of research tells you that a) real estate is expensive in key parts of BC b) taxes are higher c) salaries lower. Go figure. Why is anyone surprised ? It's not new news. Research, research, research. The mantra to be learned, it is, young Jedi.

Next on my list, well you need to bring strong settlement funds. No such funds, you heighten the risks associated with moving to BC. It's not that money guarantees successful migration, but it helps. BC = bring cash, no joke, a fair warning to all.

OK.... so now we get to the comparisons with UK life. Bring some decent settlement funds, get two decent jobs (not supernova salaries but decent professional level jobs with benefits) and it can make a helluva bloody difference. eg we had x value of disposable income in the UK. Came to BC, survived on one salary (UK was two decent professional salaries, could never have survived on one). Got second decent professional salary, disposable income (trying to give a real life translation) is approx 80% of all our income. That's about twice the value of x at very least in real terms, dollar to pound, compared to the UK. And our spending power of that residual disposable income is way higher and gives far more leverage to enjoy life to the full - t'was not the case in the UK. Life here is light years ahead of the peaks we experienced in the UK, no doubt of that.

I suggest that if you bring good settlement funds, get two reasonable jobs and you should survive and openings will be carved out for those willing to adapt and apply themselves and not sit back on their ass moaning. BC is not for moaning, there's little social support available. Again, see my previous post for reference as to why Brits fail in their pursuit of successful migration.

Cheese, liquor, beer, auto insurance, dental, all dearer than UK. Blah de blah. I'm not gonna repeat what others have said.

Research or die - factamundo.

Rich.

What if you have some children ?

Aha.... to clarify - I'm comparing two adults versus two adults, like-4-like.
We have furry children, four legged species. Migration hasn't affected them at all.

Rich.

Not directed at you dbd33 at all, knowing a bit about your personal life from this and other boards, but what has that got to do with it? Children happen wherever you live (hopefully or not, depending on your point of view). I have two, grown now.

{rant on/} I'm getting a bit pissed at many of the posts on this thread. I think there's a number of people who came over in mid career, probably for good reasons, such as being in a total state of desperation to get away from the lagerlout boyo nastiness in England these days and the pointlesss deteriortation of quality of life for most people (notable exceptions for CEOs and bling bling "personalities") engendered first by Maggie T (god rot her soul) and, more recently, by NuLAb and the excrutiating Tony Blair.

These folk maybe thought that, because they're British, all they had to do was to move to the former Colonies and then everything would be OK again. Wrong. I've lived in 5 countries in my life (so far). In each case, you need to LEARN how to succeed there. And I'm 5 for 5 so far. {/rant off}

Willkommen in Kanada!!

Bienvenue au Canada

Bug*r off little Englanders.

I'm sorry to say, but I think you have a really good point there. Some of the malcontents posting here in the past (not referring to anyone here now) gave me the strong impression that what they really expected out of Canada was the UK with mountains and cheap real estate. Canada is unique, and newcomers have to learn how to succeed here.

That first bit is a nonsense statement. This whole thread is about what some people have learnt here and they're now sharing their experience. No one seems to be overly slagging Canada off they just are saying it's tougher than they thought. There's nothing wrong with that.

Thanks that's exactly what I thought this thread was about too!

Are you sure about that? I've been here a fair bit longer (1993) but don't recall that low a price for gas!

[/QUOTE]


We return to the UK for a number of reasons.


Education
Health Care
Cost of living/Economy
Govt investment in my industry.
Family
Weather

The economy in the UK improved over the years we were in Canada. Also we saw alot of inward investment in schools, hospitals and general infrastructure when we visited our family every few years.

Our experience in Canada was that it would take weeks to see a local doctor and you had to go to A&E at the local hospital or a walk in clinic. Recently my wife needed to see a doctor at the local surgery, she phoned up at 11am and had an appointment at 11.30am the same morning. All here records were electronic to the doctor, so any clinic in the UK can see your medical records.

The cost of living rise in Canada did hurt the pockets. Salary rises were struggling to met rises in costs. I was a manager in the power industry and had a very good income. What I can say we have noticed that on an income ratio, to pay for bills such as food, hydro, heating oil, insurance etc I had to work more than double in hours to cover costs in Canada.

We moved back when my eldest son was 11 due to him going to high school.
I recently asked both my 10 & 12 year old if the prefer schools in England or Canada as you sometimes get that nagging feeling have you made the right move.
My 10 year old said you do some much more at school here than in Canada. He off to Simbridge Wildlife trust today. Last month he was at an education outward bound camp on the Isle of Wight.

My 12 year old has been selected for the National Gifted programme at high school. We are very happy with his education as his teachers in each subject are qualified to teach in that Field and not a having a general teaching diploma/degree. His Biology teacher has a PhD and English Teacher studied English at degree level.

I agree going to Canada is a great experience, it make you a better person.
We found we got depressed in winter and very lonely especially at Christmas and family times. We had a few good friends, but it did not make up with not seeing our family.
Also our 2 sons missed their grandparents and cousins as their friends would talk about all the family get togethers. The hardest thing was that both my mother and mothering law died while we were in Canada and my wife felt that the boys missed that relationship.

We found the climate pretty extreme even after 8 years. Its fun skiing and sledging for a few weeks, but to have snow from Oct/Nov to April got a bit tiring for us. When we returned to England we joined the local tennis club had played tennis outside on Christmas eve. Its been very dry here in Oxfordshire and we spent the winter out in the garden and going for country walks on mild days and cycling.

As for the job side. I have found potential employers are impressed by that fact you have to guts to get up and move to Canada and work you way up the career ladder again. I think in 8 years I got more work and life experience in Canada than I would in 20 years in the UK.

I agree going to Canada has alot of plus points , lots of space, traditional culture, cheaper/bigger houses and huge cars/trucks. I am looking to buy land back in Canada as an investment, maybe for a Holiday home?

The downside to returning to the UK is the M25, parking costs, govt. stopping green field housing development which helped to push house prices sky high, hostility against immigrants who come for the free UK social system(I agree totally with immigration (being an ex-immigrant), especially like the Polish who come here to work really hard for a living), stealth taxes.

A big Postive is that Sainsbury's sells Maple Syrup cheaper than we paid in our local supermarket in ontario!(Boys love Maple Syrup)

MAH