Hi guys, long time reader here, first time poster.

I'm seriously considering a move to Canada, having secured a IEC permit earlier in the year. While I know the IEC is typically a temporary 'working holiday' visa, I am going with the view to make a permanent life over there, not bum around ski resorts for a couple of summers, so I want to make sure it is the right thing to do and as such and probably overloading on research at the moment! .

I know that 'Is $XXX,XXXX enough to live on?' questions are fairly common here, although the figures mentioned are usually much higher than what I'm likely to earn.

I'm a car mechanic by trade. Like the UK, there seems to be lots of jobs about but very average wages... ~$60,000 seems to be a realistic aiming point, although I may have to deal with as little as $40-50k while I'm getting setup and pass my red seal.

Area wises, I have been considering the outer parts of the GTA that'd allow a long distance commute to Toronto, or living fairly centrally in an interior city like edmonton, calgary, or winnipeg.

I'm a single 26 year old man, no expensive tastes and I can live relatively frugally. I'm just looking for a place to get my head down, work hard and grind out a decent life for myself, and canada is very appealing, but its hard to gauge whether or not I'd have a decent standard of living in Canada on a modest/average wage?

Any thoughts, inputs or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

When I first came to Calgary, I had three children aged 13, 7 and 4. I obtained a position that paid me $55,000 but I knew that my salary was likely to increase significantly over the next few years. We came to Calgary not knowing anyone in Canada and not having a job when we arrived.

We were able to bring a significant amount of money over that ensured that we were able to purchase 2 cars without requiring any form of loans and, other than a relatively small mortgage, we were also debt free. We made it work.

Whether you wish to give it a go based upon what you have said above can only really be answered by you.

I think you would need to be prepared for the lower end of that scale as a newbie with no Canadian work experience. According to the NOC wage report for that code, $22.50 is the average hourly rate for Ontario, which would equate to approx $43,875 a year.

https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/report-eng...source=8#wages

My guess (and it is just a guess) would be that as a single bloke you'd be fine on that wage if you're happy renting a room in a house etc.

And I think as a young guy with an IEC visa secured, you'd be mad not to give it a go personally.

Best of luck.

You can also look at the Ontario College of Trades Equivalency - Ontario College of Trades » Trade Equivalency Assessment 'Experienced Workers from Within and Outside of Ontario'



As christmasoompa said - go for it! What's the worst that can happen!

My Son earns $50k a year and lives in Vancouver (not the outskirts). He has a small car loan, pays monthly car insurance, pays about $850 month rent, buys all his food etc and lives pay cheque to pay cheque.

Without his car loan and extortionate ICBC insurance, he would be about $350 month better off and in a much better position.

$50k per year would be bare minimum that you could live on in Vancouver in my opinion

I can over to Canada on the IEC program at 25 and was on around $40k and could make it work in Metro-Van (this was around 4 years ago). Rent's have gone up quite a bit across Vancouver, Toronto but should be possible

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I'm super excited at the prospect of coming over to Canada, I just want to make sure I do a proper amount of planning and research so that I am able to make the most of my IEC.

I do read a lot about how expensive things are in canada, particularly the price of housing in Vancouver and the GTA. It helps that I'm used to London pricing and can live very frugally, but my main concern is not moving all that way just to 'tread water', if that makes sense?

I'm definitely thinking that I may need to look away from the GTA and more at the interior. The Alberta wages for my job are higher than Ontario and the UK, coupled with noticeably lower housing and living costs.

Its seems anywhere commutable (~50km) from Toronto might be a bit of stretch on the average wage for my NOC code, where as in Alberta it'd give me a fairly good standard of living?

How about $111,500 a year:

https://recruitment.edmonton.ca/job/...d&src=JB-11120

Average salary $73,000 a year:

https://alis.alberta.ca/occinfo/occu...ce-technician/

Hiring Bonus $5,000:

https://careers.hireology.com/westga...ref=indeed.com

114 vacant positions:

https://ca.indeed.com/jobs?q=Automot...C+AB&start=10#