Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

We are considering moving to New Glasgow, Nova Scotia for a year, but have never been there. Obviously, we stumbled upon the "Worst Place to Live in Canada" articles, and some of the threads on here too. I saw that @cookie has moved out of town, and was one of its biggest boosters.

Are there any current residents of New Glasgow that could tell us a bit about the actual experience of living there?

We have two young kids, so I guess crime and break-ins would be our biggest fears. The strange thing is that, other than these "worst' surveys and articles, the town seems rather lovely and community-minded.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Hi, welcome to BE.

Just checking, but you're Canadian citizens? Or already have a visa in place that will allow you to move?

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Yeah, Canadian and returning. I wanted to ask here because there had been active threads here about New Glasgow, and members seemed willing to share their experiences.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Perfect.

Members are indeed more than happy to help if they can. Not sure off the top of my head if there is anybody on the forum around there, but I'm sure if there is they'll be happy to share their views.

Good luck with the move.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

HI, I really like New Glasgow. Cookie should be along soon, I have paged her :-)

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

It certainly attracted me when I was looking to move to NS. The circumstances making me look at moving to NS changed and I didn't need to go but New Glasgow was my target 100%.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Thanks for the help. Howefamily! We are looking at places for rent all over NS, and in Halifax as well. But one of the houses we really like is in NG. I'm not sure we are going to be able to get it, but thought we'd do our homework just in case. Are you living in NG, or just know it from visiting?

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Hi, Cookie. Thanks so much for getting back to us. As I explained in my response to Howefamily, we are currently looking at a house in NG that's available for rent. We are trying to lock down a place before we arrive (in a couple of weeks), and we wanted to get a sense of NG as a community. Our criteria, whether for Halifax, a smaller town, or something even more remote are quite specific, so it's hard to find the right place. Although we'll have a car, because my wife doesn't drive (at least as yet) we are looking for places that are within 1-1.5 km of a grocery and drug store, so that we can walk. This isn't really the case for a lot of suburban and even urban places. Because Canadians drive more than walk, and because so many stores are on highways in bigger shopping centres, finding a walkable solution is hard. We've been looking at Chester, Guysborough, Bedford and downtown Halifax. As I said, we're not sure we are going to be able to get the place we are looking at in NG, but from a distance, it looks perfect for us. Thanks so much for your help.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

I don't drive either - so I get a cab to the grocery / other stores that aren't very close by. :) Your wife won't be wanting to walk when it's -30c (or lower) and snowing up a blizzard, particularly with young children! :eek: Where is it you will be working? You may want to look at somewhere that is within easy commuting distance, particularly during winter. I've always found padmapper and rent faster to be useful for finding what else is in the area (for available rentals) - these links are for Halifax, but you can just change the town/city and any other filters)https://www.rentfaster.ca/ns/halifax/ https://www.padmapper.com/apartments...56559,44.64605
You might find walk score handy: https://www.walkscore.com/live-more/canada/

Hope you find something that suits ... good luck :)

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Oh, great. Now that you've revealed the meteorological prognosis, maybe she'll get (ahem) cold feet. ;)

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

None of my family here drives either and that was a plus for New Glasgow. Weather and groceries are things to consider when walking.

We have a good bus service here. I don't know for New Glasgow but it's small so taxis may not be much. Most taxi rides for us here are $7 to $10 on the meter. They can add $1 for each extra passenger but they rarely do.

The bus is $2.50 per journey, (about $2 with punch passes) so when there are three of you, it's very tempting to pay an extra couple of $$ and go door to door by taxi when the weather is not good for walking to and waiting at the bus stop.

Another consideration for New Glasgow for me was getting around by bike. Distances seemed short and not too hilly.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Hi, no, I just drive through it when going to the beach there. Melmerby Beach is my most favourite and worth the drive for us from Elmsdale, which is near the airport. I always like the look of NG when I am there.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Oh Cookie - you forgot Pictou County Pizza! It's worth living there just for the pizza!!

I've visited NG a few times and have enjoyed my time there - the Jubilee was a lot of fun - I would research jobs though before you move, that would be my biggest worry.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Thanks for the tip about the pizza...and no worry about a job since we work online!

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

In that case it is a beautiful part of the province. My friends parents live not far away in French River, everyone is very friendly. [Pizza - go to Acropole in Westville just outside of NG!]

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the pulp mill yet? Granted I've only driven past New Glasgow once, on our first recce trip, but the stench coming out of that place was just awful! I don't know how often it does that and I'm sure it's very weather-dependent, but I wouldn't consider living there as long as that mill was in operation. Have you looked at the Annapolis Valley area? Lots of nice towns there, you could live in Wolfville/Kentville/New Minas/Berwick and probably find somewhere in walking distance of shops (although I agree with others that walking in the winter wouldn't be much fun!)

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

That concerned me when I was investigating but I was assured it wasn't an issue.

There is a facebook page (clean up the pictou county pulp mill) on which it says "The goal of this group is to create awareness..."
One assumes creating awareness wouldn't be necessary it was a problem. :unsure:

Doesn't look nice mind you.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...eb6d38304b.jpg

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

There has been quite a bit on the local news about it recently; they have had a lot of issues with disposal of their waste water. Until recently they've been pumping it all into a pond but have now been told they can't do that any more, so they've proposed building a pipeline out into the sea and pumping it out there. Understandably the locals, and the fishermen, are not very keen on that idea at all. The plant has said if they can't build the pipe then the place will close, but no one's sure if that's a genuine threat or just posturing. (It seems the original approval for the pipe was done very fast and through a route that did not require a lot of environmental checking which has raised some red flags).

Aside from all that it's the smell that is bad. I'm sure it's not always there, what with wind direction and everything, but when it is there, wow is it unpleasant :-(

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Yes, I remember staying not far from Saint John, NB in 75 and there was a mill there with a bad smell that drifted our way. It looks a similar distance as that one is from NG. Looking at it on the map I'm certain someone on BE said it didn't get much beyond Trenton. It did surprise me at the time as one seems to run into the other.

I'm not unhappy I didn't have to find out. :lol:

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Have you considered Truro? Its a great little town thats in the on the crossing of the 102 and the trans Canada. the beaches of the Northumberland Strait are about 40 mins away, Halifax about an hour and 15... theres a nice patio culture growing here and it has pretty much everything. I work here and really like it as a town.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

My husband has just come back from 3 months in New Glasgow, he's been working there in the spring and summer for the last four years and really likes it. He even suggested we move there - but when I looked it up I was horrified, I find the population of Fredericton dauntingly small, NG would drive me scatty. Over the four years he has been visiting he says he has seen the population declining rather rapidly, lots of shops are now vacant. He really likes it there - he came home with great tales about the Riverfront Jubilee that's just happened...it was evidently 'the place' to be.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Perhaps Atlantic Canada's "Big Apple" ;) being not far would compensate.


Cookie used to enjoy the dragonboat weekends.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

The Riverfront Jubilee | A Nova Scotia Signature Event

It's this weekend according to the website, lol.
AUGUST 3/4/ 5 - 2018

It's been going for over 20 years - yet I've never heard of it before.. thanks for posting a mention (adds to bucket list)
http://newglasgowjubilee.ca/info/

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Wolfville is a lovely town ................ has Acadia University there, small shops on a very walk-able "downtown", some nice eateries and coffee bars (Library Pub and Merchant Wine Tavern), wineries within easy reach. In other words, what you might expect from a university town with students and staff who don't like driving everywhere. I love the houses there, many really nice, well kept older ones.

Kentville is not far away with some larger stores, and also some nice places to eat ....... Rosies for one ... and perhaps more variety in housing. There is a wonderful harvest festival decorating event in Kentville in fall ......... the Kentville Pumpkin People Festival. It's hilarious!!!

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

I listened to the music samples at the bottom. Sounds like some good stuff.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Some nice pics on google images. Including this one. :lol:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...d827d237ea.jpg

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

I'd definitely recommend the Annapolis Valley (which is where we live :-) ) including Wolfville, Kentville and all the surrounding areas. We love it here. The wintery pictured is Lucketts, it's owned by Pete Luckett, originally from England. The phone booth is quite the celebrity! There are quite a few wineries around here now, the wine industry (and the beer and cider industries too) are thriving here. The area is very scenic, lots of lovely houses, farmland, pretty towns and fishing villages.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

I have been to Lucketts, its really wonderful, fine dining with a superb view and ambience. The wine region in NS is really rather lovely I find. I sometimes forget how damn lucky we are to live here.

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Hi, all, sorry for the long delay in responding. We lost the place in NG, and a couple others, because the landlords were understandably anxious to rent quickly, and we were still en route, and that made it much harder to do the requisite interviews and deposits required to close the deal. We ended up taking a short term rental in downtown Halifax for a month and a half, and that gave us time to explore widely, and to consider rentals in New Glasgow, Digby, Hubbards, Bedford, and in the Halifax peninsula, both downtown and in Hydrostone.

All of the places were lovely, but it was a bit of a surprise to find out that there are still areas of NS not served by high-speed internet; that eliminated some of the most rural spots. After that, we got used to checking with Eastlink and Bell Aliant before getting excited about a place!

Although our long term plan is still to settle somewhere in rural NS, and possibly purchase, we decided to take a place in Armdale, at least for a year – to give us some time to explore and adapt. It is a beautiful little cottage, on the water, a bit pricier than we wanted to spend, but in a truly gorgeous spot.

Thanks for all your advice. It really helped orient us, and we are slowly working through a bunch of your recommendations. We took the @howefamily tip and visited Melmerby Beach twice, as well as Crystal Crescent Beach, and a tiny little beach with startling warm water by the Puddle on Margaret's Bay Rd; all were gorgeous. And we have plans to visit Wolfville and Kentville this month; we wanted to go earlier in the fall, but I had some unexpected eye surgery and couldn't drive for a bit.

One last request, though. If any of you have a strong recommendation for an immigration lawyer in Halifax or the surrounding area, please let us know. We are looking for a bit of help with our application.

Cheers, and thanks for your help in making our landing soft and smooth!

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

Re: Moving to New Glasgow, NS?
 

:goodpost:

+1
Post in our immigration forum and we'll guide you through the forms and the different routes.. unless you have a complex background (dodgy background / medical issues) with the online applications now there's no real need to seek out professional help, we can help you get it right. You would have to supply all the info, take all the tests, get all the documentation and get assessments done regardless, so it's just as easy (and a darn site cheaper) to do it yourself! :)