Hi
Any info re Newfoundland would be useful. We are considering it in our options. I am a GP and partner a teacher and initially we we focused on BC as easier to get in (only 3 more exams for me to confirm I am medically qualified despite being a gp for 7 yrs compared to NS or Ontario that have you repeat some hospital jobs). Anyway recently I found out NL only ask you to do 3 exams so it has started to look interesting. We have been to ontario, quebec and bc and loved all 3. I realise NL completely different ie remote but this is part of the attraction-open spce, clean air etc. We dont want to be completely isolated so were thinking about St John's. Obviously it depends on jobs-from what ive seen i am in quite a good position re jobs and OH is willing to try anyrthing different (adult education teacher not but more than happy to change).
Any info re ares/weather/economics gratefully recieved.
Also what is the situation re airline - do you really have to go to halifax to get direct flight to uk?
Thanks

Welcome to Paradise.......

Newfoundland is a fantastically rugged, mad, challenging, rewarding, clean, clear, uncrowded place with industrial sized quantities of fresh air and sea views around every corner. It's also desperately short of GP's so the authorities should chew your arm off to come live and work here.

Check out http://www.nlphysicianjobs.ca/ for more info.

Living here is not without it's downsides - travel off the Rock can be expensive and timeconsuming and if you crave the bright lights of a big city then even living in St John's isn't probably going to fulfill your needs. However the city and environs offers all we need in terms of arts, culture, eating and drinking etc.

No direct flight to the UK (Except charters to Deer Lake from Gatwick Summer/Winter for Humber Valley resort) so you fly via Halifax. An irritation but not insurmountable. Housing is still massively cheaper than most other places in Canada although the economic boom surrounding oil and gas is driving prices up.

Pretty much impossible for a Brit (or other 'Come from Away') to get into a teaching job though. Mrs AX is a Newfoundlander and has been home for 4 years and still doesn't have a permanent position. She, unfortunately is not alone in that situation. Still, I imagine a GP salary would pay more than enough to live very comfortably on!

Happy to provide any further info I can as will I'm sure the other members of the BE NL Massive. (all three of us.......)

Cheers,
AX

Completely agree with Mr AX!

We moved here last November, after coming over on holiday and falling in love with the place. My OH works in the oil industry, so managed to arrange a transfer through his work. I am a teacher, but at the moment on a temporary work permit so can't work with kids (in case i pass on any diseases!). As AX says, the outlook for teachers is not so hot here - one of the downsides of a place with not so many people.

However, it is an amazing place to live. The pace of life is great - nobody is in a hurry, plenty of space, fresh air sea, .......

St John's is a good size (roughly 200,000), but feels very much like a small town. downtown is very nice - shops, places to eat, etc. out and about have a couple of malls, two cinemas (one with 12 screens) and big box stores (walmart, old navy, future shop, pier 1 imports, winners ..........). So, pretty much everthing you need.

Drop us a pm if you want some more info - happy to oblige.

Here are some pics of newfoundland just to give you an idea.

(think that myself and AX should get commission from the newfoundland govt!)

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

We need GPs in BC. 's wonderful.

Thanks for the info-food for thought.

^

Hi,

We moved here from the UK a few months back,as Pink says its a beautiful place to live, a totally different way of life.

Thanks. Where abouts in Newfoundland are you and what made you decide there rather than other areas (both in Newfoundland and also other parts of Canada)?

We (The BE NL Massive) are all in the St John's or 'North East Avalon' area. Why? Mainly because thats where most of the jobs are. Rural NL can be very rural in places. The upside is space, fresh air, outdoor activities etc the downside would be access to shops, restaurants, bars etc. Having said that, having just returned from a trip across the Island and upto the Northern Peninsula (St Anthony) the scenery is way better than here in the Far East. Towns like Corner Brook, Deer Lake, Grand Falls etc could be great places to live and work.

Why did I move here? Because I'm married to a Newfoundlander & she wanted to come home. So that makes me a little different from PinkMcF and D15ney so I'll leave them to answer that question themselves!

Why Newfoundland? Just fell in love with it - something about it just felt right as soon as we got off the plane on our first visit. Love the space, the fact that Newfoundlanders are a lot less uptight than some other Canadians. We had also been to Vancouver/Banff/Jasper/Edmonton and although we liked them, didn't have the same draw. I loved Jasper, but just not the work there, and I feel the busload of tourists would drive me bananas.

Why St John's? OH works in oil, so proximity to the airport important. In Scotland it was a 2 hour round trip to drop him off/pick him up (and that was in good traffic) and flights are frequently delayed etc so it was a pain. Shopping was an important part for me - if you stayed out and about in the island, plan on having at least 2/3 visits to St John's a year for shopping - out and about there is just nothing at all apart from Wal Mart and small clothing (mumsy and old fashioned) shops in malls in the towns that have them. A lot of people try to have the best of both worlds with a house in town and a cabin out and about somewhere. You can pick up a small reasonable cabin for about $40 000.

As AX says, the scenery on the west coast is amazing and with the humber valley resort over there, I think it is an area that is going to grow and would be lovely to live in. There is an airport in Deer Lake which has direct flights to Gatwick if you book through Humber Valley resort. Corner Brook struck me as quite a nice place to stay - felt like a small town and has quite a pretty downtown. Pasadena which is near by is also meant to be a lovely place to stay.

If you can afford it, it is worth coming over for a couple of weeks and just getting a feel for the island. It takes about 9 hours to drive from one side to the other, so in 2 weeks you could see all the big towns, and also see some of the smaller places as well.

Another reason for St John's was because OH works away, wanted to be near a town which had lots to do and social opportunities.

Hope that helps a bit, and apologies for rambling on again!

hello again ,

Again we are different from Pink, who had travelled around Canada & AXpat who married a local .

We simply came over last August for FOUR days whilst husband had his job interviews, we did a quick 'recce' of areas we would like to live...oh and we fitted in a 'whale-watching' tour .

After 4 days we didn't want to leave, if we could of had the kids and dogs flown over to us we would of .

I would deffo recommend a trip over here

Hopefully will beable to do reccie soonish but went to BC this year end June and havent much time left for holidays-only have a few long weekends , which seems bit extravagant to go to Canada again!!