Hi everyone,

i would be keen to know if anyone is living in New Brunswick (East Coast) and how do they like it?

i have read brochures and property is cheaper than many parts of Canada, but sometimes that is not a good thing, is there employment in the area?

thanks for your time in reading this, any advice would be really great

The two areas I have highlighted are usually linked. The people that go to New Brunswick don`t tend to do so due to the work opportunities, it is usually because they want to escape the rat race.

There are posters from NB whom I'm sure will weigh in. By cheaper areas I'll assume you are referring to house pricing? Do note that even in a cheaper area, many of the cost of living type expenses will be the same or higher than in an area of more expensive homes. Generally (but not always) it is the case that housing cost is related to the availability of work and/or the desireability of the area to live in.

What sort of work are you looking for in NB?

Thanks for writing back, i did mean housing was cheaper, but i have only skimmed into looking into NB.
My work field is currently British Army, but i specialise in Health & Safety, i have no idea if this is a fairly good job to do there? or if there is employment in general in the Health & Safety field, i would be very keen to know.

This would appear to be true from comments made on these forums.

Property taxes, for example, seem to be a higher rate per $100 assessed value than other places but as the value is much lower to begin with, the actual bill is about the same.

The lower housing cost does free up money for other things, especially if one has capital to begin with.

We live very cheaply, being mortgage free.

I can't speak for all of NB, but "desireability of area" is less likely to be the issue it might be in other places. There are advantages and disadvantages of course, but in Moncton there's nowhere that would draw a sharp intake of breath for example.

I'm no expert on the employment situation. It's fair to say there are fewer opportunities, but then there are fewer people too.

But if you do have a bit of capital it's possible to have a rental property as well as your home and the income from that may mean one needn't be so dependent on high paid employment. It works for some.

sod off somewhere else!!!!

Joking aside New Brunswick is a beautiful place with nearly everything that you could want - the limitations are population based so if you are used to/like big city living it may not suit you. In terms of living its a slower pace of life as someone above said about escaping the rat race. (was a big appeal for us) I love that the Highways are empty and that even at peak rush hour you can still drive across town without to much trouble.

The cost of living is similar in terms of bills but hugely cheaper in terms of housing (we lived on the south coast back home) My wages are higher than back home and we have a higher standard of living here - better car, better stuff and we eat out a lot more. We always have money left over at the end of the month, something we rarely had in UK.

I love it here and could not be happier. My Mrs is not as happy but its mostly due to missing family so hopefully that will pass with time.

I would think that in your area of expertise that Fredericton might be a good place to start as the Government is based there and also there is a Canadian Forces base nearby.

Alex,
many thanks for that kind response. Mind you, someone has to do Health & Safety...haha Its not a dirty word.
My Mrs is still unsure about Canada, so everything positive i get is a step closer to deciding

we moved here about 8 months ago and really do enjoy it. Neither myself or OH struggled to find jobs but if we ever lose our jobs I think we would struggle to get another one due to the lack of options. So if you do move here you need to be aware that you may have to move on one day.

if you are used to big city life and enjoy it, NB is not the place for you. We both grew up in south east London and were happy to get away from it, we enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and slower pace. You can get anywhere in Fredericton in about 20 mins and parking is never a problem. The cost of living pretty much balances out, housing is substantially cheaper but other things cost a lot more ($19 for 5 chicken breast for example!).

NB is certainly not a place for everyone and you really need to see it for yourself to figure out if you could be happy here - we haven't regretted a minute so far.

That was great advice, many thanks for your time. i will visit next year and get a good feel for the place

We moved to Moncton, NB in April 2007 - big mistake.

yes it is a beautiful location, yes we got a fabulous house for a great price but everything else forget it.

We were both highly qualified - hubbie PhD in Micro electronics, ex military etc, I was a teacher trained - big problem neither of us spoke French. To get REAL job in NB you have to speak French. My hubbie ended up in a call centre working nights which actually was reasonably well paid as it was with Rogers, others are not, paying minimum wage around $10 - 11 per hour. I won't tell you how many employers turned their back on us when they found we could not speak French

Other than houses, we did not find anything else cheaper - food, gas, utilities etc were expensive. Family things like YMCA membership in NB we paid $136 per month, in London just over $80 and that is a brand new facility with everything. We found clubs for the kids were expensive such as skating. Other than the beautiful scenery and a few parks we had nothing to do there. The weather is also terrible during the winter - we had snow piles on either side of the driveway 8 foot plus high and you had to dig out every day - twice a day. summer was great and there are some of the most beautiful beaches there and if you like driving the scenery is fantastic.

Family visiting in the winter is a problem - flights seem to stop in Sep/Oct and do not restart until April/May and even then to Halifax - 2 1/2 hours drive away. Unless you get a connecting flight from Toronto as we had to do in April. There is very little shopping there and other than driving to Halifax or down to the States expect to buy on-line for a lot of things.

Most of the people are really nice except the main French speakers who really object to speaking English and although they are in the minority they get the biggest say.

We had originally moved there after attending one of the recruitment fairs in Scotland when they told us all the high tech companies were moving there - we checked and yes, many were (although a lot have moved out!!) what they didn't say was it was call centres - NB has the highest percentage of workers working in call centres. We even got interviewed on tv as we were stuggling to find jobs and the government representative said we must have been given wrong advice and should have been directed to another province. A bit late after we have spent thousands to get there and then have to spend even more to get out - the realtors fee alone killed us as in 18 months we had of course made no money on the house - the norm is 5% of the house sale price.

It's an odd thing. Because housing is far cheaper in the Maritimes, people seem to think everything should be cheaper. When it's not, it seems more expensive in comparison but it's pretty much the same as everywhere else. Property taxes are more expensive as far as the rate per $100 assessed value goes, but with lower assessed values the actual bill is about the same. That's no great surprise as a cheaper house doesn't mean the cost of garbage collection and snow removal is less.


We've been here for 5 winters. We don't have a snow blower. Dig out every day? Twice a day?
The first two winters I shovelled about a dozen times in each winter. They have these nice shovel/pusher things. Most snowfalls require pushing rather than digging out.

The worst part is when the snow plough clears the street and pushes snow across the front of the driveway. That needs a bit of digging. But street clearance of snow is brilliant.

Just once in each of two winters it was too deep for me to clear and I paid $40 for a clearance by one of these...

...while all the neighbours managed with their own snowblowers or clearance contracts.
Last winter a big snowfall (like those two) was forecast for a weekend. Rather than wait for the snow to stop I went out 6 times during the day to clear what had fallen. That prevented it becoming too much to handle.

Those 8 foot high banks mentioned are from where snow has been cleared rather than tackling 8 feet of snow.

Of course it's a mjor irritation - especially the ridges deposited across the driveway And it's worse if you have to get out early for work - luckily I don't.

But I don't think it's worse than a lot of Canada. I was previously in Quebec and our street there was only plowed part way.

There's no direct flight regardless of the time of year. My mum came in winter and summer. She flew AirCanada via Halifax. Cheaper and quicker than a combination of cheapie from Gatwick and domestic flight so no worse in winter than summer. Perhaps it's different now?

That's a really strange thing to say considering how far people travel to come here to shop, including from NS.

I can't speak much about the employment side of things (I don't work) but there are plenty of unilingual English people who seem to manage okay despite the language issues that crop up.

I'm sure others from the area can have further input on that.

some pics, and this was at the start of winter. we were just around the corner from the snow trucks and they came along frequently but this meant the snow at the end of the driveway was compacted and solid - it took ages to dig out.

Our neighbours had told us you won't need a snowblower - what fibs, we did dig out 2 or more times a day. Hubbie worked night shift and had to dig it out to get back in as you were not allowed to park on the roads, The driveway as you can see is a double plus - by the time of mid winter it was single and the snow was higher than our grand caravan. we couldn't throw it any higher.

re the price of goods the problem is that wages in NB are so low, yet you pay the same price for eveything if not more. There is little competition so stores can charge what they want. They keep telling you it is the cost of shipping in the goods - as far as i hear it is even worse in NL, The one thing I do miss is the cheese rolls out of Sobeys on Mountain Road both burger and hot do. yummy

another couple - I enjoyed looking back at them so wanted to share!!

Is this like a pasty or bread roll sort of thing?

It does look snowy but surely London Ont is about the same, I had loads more snow than that when living north of Orangeville.