Not going now
 

I was originally planning to land in Calgary round about now and start a new job there. However, on route from Dubai, I stopped off at home in London and was offered a job which is paying almost the same in pounds sterling as would have been my wage in Calgary $55k. OK a little less in pounds, the other side of 50.

Some how I cannot see that Canada will offer a better standard of living and I'm sure in the long run I will be financially better off in England. Also, I don't think $55k CAD will give me the same buying power as £50k. I'm not convinced that things are priced pound to dollar in Canada as I have been previously told. I have heard Calgary is beautiful, but at the end of the day I guess it comes down to money.

Therefore the decision has now been taken, and we are not going.

Thanks,
Majj

Re: Not going now
 

Well, I've found that while salaries are lower in Canada, so is the cost of living. So at the end of the day, the proportions of what you spend in the UK are the same as what you would spend in Canada. Might not be true for everyone though. The advantage of a UK salary is that you have relatively more to spend if you decide to go abroad.

However, I disagree that "Canada doesn't offer a better standard of living", especially compared to London!

It's not all about money for some people, but it sounds like you've chosen London so good luck with that.

Re: Not going now
 

I'm not sure about 55k in Canada, but, to be honest, 50k in London is not going to give you a great lifestyle unless house prices drop a lot. I'd say you need to be earning at least 100k in London to live well... it's a very expensive city.

Re: Not going now
 

I used to earn way less than 55GBP and I had a good life in and around London (OK Bromley). The cost of living here in BC is the same if not higher than the UK - groceries, utilities and other "basics" are more expensive and are of much poorer quality. You also have to put up with attitudes from the dark ages, crap services and terrible employment prospects. I would take the London job over a $55k job in Canada any day.

Re: Not going now
 

Wow! I thought you were there by now...

Are you at least going over to land? That way you can keep your options open for the next 3yrs, should it not work out in the UK, until your PR status runs out.

Best of luck either way. I was interested to hear what happened with your "cancelled" backwards visa too :D

Biiiiink

Re: Not going now
 

Nice, I think sometimes people get the idea of Canada being heaven and the UK is hell and feel bad about turning down Canada, but I think you made a good choice. I haven't found Canada to be that much cheaper on the whole (but then again I am on a student budget so nothing is cheap lol) and if you are happy living in a city then I think London is an awesome one. Good luck with the new job :)

Re: Not going now
 

This is not meant to be disrespectful - but why on earth don't you just go back? I mean, do you prefer to live somewhere you don't enjoy when there's a place you clearly prefer a few hours' flying time away? I have been in Canada for over 20 years and go to Europe and Britain yearly on business and to visit family. Wild horses would not drag me back to Britain - and it's not about salary or groceries or services (though I find services and customer service vastly better in Canada than in the U.K.) It's about space, about attitude, about people's lack of baggage, about a sense of community (yes, even in big cities) and about an incomparably better quality of life. This is totally personal, of course! But it puzzles me why someone as clearly homesick and unhappy would want to stick around

GTR

Re: Not going now
 

Great minds think alike. See dingbat's post in The Joys of Selling Your Home thread.

Re: Not going now
 

Nasty ex husband, who has lots of money, fancy lawyer - got a court order after we divorced which stopped my kids from leaving Canada and BC without his permission, children he pays NO child support for and has abandoned. I tried to fight it and lost over $10,000 to useless lawyers. I am now probably able to leave after yet another court review, unless my ex crawls out from under his latest stone and appeals before the deadline next week. Answer your question? Some of us have no choice but stay here, perhaps if you had read a few posts and not jumped to conclusions, you would have seen why I detest this place so much. :cool: You are also out East - ever lived in BC? No? Well then....shockingly, it is very different back East and had I been given the choice to move there, I might well not have the same gripes. As it stands, I leave Canada for good or potentially open myself up to never ending litigation from someone who doesn't even see the kids he has kept here for three years now against their wishes (and mine), just because he can.

Re: Not going now
 

As I said - no disrespect was meant in my original question. You have certainly more than aptly answered why you dislike this place so much. And you are right: I know very little about B.C. I hope you can resolve the difficult situation you're in and find happiness. Best of luck!

GTR

Re: Not going now
 

Fingers crossed for you.

$55k in Calgary vs £<50k in London. Too close to call. Personally I'd rather live in Calgary...dont remember the rockies being on Londons Doorstep...but then its not still winter in London either! Cant help but think £50k wont go far in london if you plan to buy a place to live, but then $55k in Calgary would be a struggle for a family on a fair size mortgage.

As I have said many times, emmigrating for financial reasons is going to end in tears. Its about quality of life in my opinion. Good Luck wherever you end up, life is what you make it, not where you make it.

Re: Not going now
 

I know people (Canadians) who are from BC and they will not go back there. They say it stands for Bring Cash.

Re: Not going now
 

Oh great!!!!!!!!!!!

I was just literally going to post something to say Ontario or BC which is best as have never considered BC up until yesterday but today decided to do a bit of research and see if it looked any better than Ontario - then I come across this thread which has nothing good to say about BC.

Please advise me as to whether BC is a good place to immigrate to from UK -is cost of living so high as stated here etc etc.

Thanks

Re: Not going now
 

To put it in perspective the only person with direct experience of BC in this thread is being help there against her wishes, which is not going to do anything to make you positive about it.

BC...the inhabited bits anyway... is undoubtedly expensive by Canadian standards, but on the other hand the weather is milder and the mountains and ocean right there. Prices are perhaps inflated due to demand from immigrants comming in from the other side of the Pacific, and perhaps by the Olympics coming to town. Its probably fair to say employment is easier to find in Ontario.
Im sure stats canada probably has some meaingfull cost of living index to compare communities in its community profiles, but remember, housing costs are often a case of supply and demand...if its expensive its because people want to live there, and if its cheap its because demand is less. Only you know what you are truly looking for.

I wouldnt want anyone to emmigrate anywhere based on whats posted here!Visit Ontario (and there is more to Ontario than the GTA!) and BC, and ask some more questions here.

Re: Not going now
 

Well I think the way I would put it is

If you have enough money then Canada can give you as much enjoyment as the UK can with enough money…

But without the money Canada can be just as miserable as any hole in the UK..

The question you need to work out is how much money is enough

A lot will ride on your personal expectations..

As a rule I find Canada on the day to day necessities to a bit slightly cheaper than the UK..
On hi Tech toys Canada is cheaper due to proximity to the US

For luxuries then that’s where Canada falls down they can be hard to find and expensive.

So the cost will directly be affected by your expectations and life style…

And as a general disclaimer some thing you expect to be cheaper here won’t be and other will

Re: Not going now
 

What sort of thing counts as a luxury ? My various dependents don't seem to have any trouble finding the spa.

Re: Not going now
 

[QUOTE=iaink]To put it in perspective the only person with direct experience of BC in this thread is being help there against her wishes, which is not going to do anything to make you positive about it.

Let me try and give nothing but positive thoughts about BC:

1. Scenery to die for - you are unlikely to see much that is more beautiful in Canada either on the mainland or on the island. (except maybe NS)
2. Access to First Nations history that is largely unknown outside North America (unless you are a history buff).
3. Proximity to North West Coast USA if you like the States. Oregon is gorgeous.
4. Much slower pace of life.
5. Less pressure on your kids to succeed at school.
6. Access to BC's most famous export if that sort of thing floats your boat.
7. Watching your kids play against a backdrop of mountain ranges. You can't beat that. :)

Re: Not going now
 

Tried to give you karma for the positive outlook...but as usual it wont let me!

Re: Not going now
 

I was able to earn 35k in London before and still save money and be able to do the things we wanted to. A lot of people work in Central London and spend there money outside of London. Nobody does their Sainsbury's shopping in central London.

Re: Not going now
 

Yes, I was supposed to be there by now. But we got back from Dubai and the sheer task of emptying the house out for rent in the availalbe time, it just wasn't going to happen. The way the exchange rate sits, it's just not possible to leave the house empty and come back and sort it out.

But because it takes ages for the visa to come through, in that time our circumstances have changed and we really have to ask the question, are we going to enjoy a better lifestyle and standard of living in Canada? At the moment the answer is no. I know it's not just about money, but money is a very important factor when comparing standard of living.

BTW the visa has cancelled thorugh it upside down as well as backwards. Guess I might not find out now.

Re: Not going now
 

majj you have to do whatever you think is best as life is short.
i thought that after the bombings people may leave london and come up north like manchester. but there wages would be lower.but you can have a good standard of living in where i live in the peak district for 30 grand a year, but it would be hard to convince you that dropping 25 grand would make u better off. you have made what was a dilemma into a firm decision. well done

Re: Not going now
 

I don't know when 'before' was, but house prices have pretty much tripled in the UK in the last five years... and housing is probably the largest single expense for the majority of people here.

Re: Not going now
 

Oh well, maybe I'm lucky but I just love it in Burlington and Ontario.

Great standard of living. Move into the "mansion" on Friday.
Salary is as good as in the UK and goes much further.
Attitudes of people are a lot more positive (although very nice)
"Cleaner" environment (both socially and physically) for bringing up kids. Just more Wholesome. And don't get me going on the smog. I'm and environmental consultant and could say a few things about classification of smog etc and GTA V London.
Time and space to enjoy the great outdoors!

I guess it is each to there own at the end of the day. I'll just be enjoying the BBQ and sitting in my new garden with the family over the holiday weekend. The simple things see.............

:beer:

Re: Not going now
 

It's unbelievable. I just saw a terraced house advertised on the street where I lived in my hometown in Lancashire for £86,950 (approx $209,000). It's two up two down with no garden and it's leasehold so you don't even get the land. It occupies a liitle more land area than my two car garage. It isn't in a scenic spot either.

Re: Not going now
 

There's two bedroom terraced house for sale across the street for $289,000. I expect it's freehold but there's neither parking nor much yard. $209,000 doesn't seem too bad.

Re: Not going now
 

terraced house down here for sale for £250,000 = $525,000

Now thats expensive!

Re: Not going now
 

City prices are always higher irrespective of country. The place I quoted was in a little town in Lanacashire.

Re: Not going now
 

You've got to expect downtown Toronto to be more expensive than elsewhere (even in Canada the major cities cost more for obvious reasons)! Try around $250,000-300,000 for a nice 3 bed detached house in the suburbs about 40 mins from downtown. Now see what you get that far from central London (and in a nice location, not a dive by any means.

Got to compare apples with apples.

I'd have to say that 55K pounds with a family and starting out in London would be nowhere near enough to get me the lifestyle I enjoy in Ontario. Maybe its OK if you don't want to buy anything or have a family, who knows?

Re: Not going now
 

I live in a commuter village full of bankers just outside London. Two-bedroom apartments are up for sale for the equivalent of about CAN$800,000 at the moment... then again, they've been trying to sell them for up to a year now without much luck :).

Re: Not going now
 

You can use exchange rates, salaries etc. for comparison till you're blue in the face but what it really boils down to is purchasing power. I think you simply get more for your money in Canada especially when you look at the golf cart sized cars in the UK.

Re: Not going now
 

Eh ? I have quite a nice three bedroom house quite far into the suburbs, the Mississauga Road exit from the QEW, it's worth a fair bit more than the price quoted and it's 90 minutes away on a good day. I have another three bedroom house genuinely 40 minutes from downtown but it's not nice and, again, it's worth over $400,000.

Re: Not going now
 

Ok, maybe I should have clarified as 40 minutes without traffic, 2 hours with. Similar to living in Surrey/Kent etc and driving into London.

Maybe you've got a bigger house than us but, they are the sort of price for a 3 bed detached, unfinished basement, 1.5 bath on nice estate in North Burlington, Appleby Line (I'm moving into it tomorrow).

:)

Re: Not going now
 

Ah yes, the traffic. Enjoy your house, it sounds like a deal.

Re: Not going now
 

Re: Not going now
 

I think that a lot of the people on here must be slightly older than us, or own property. The prices quoted are all too high for us without equity. We're in London and we had been trying to get a place to live, but mortgage companies will only lend us £85k. For that kind of money we'd have to move into a drug-infested pit on an estate 60 miles away or to a town 300 miles away. We've been living with Cand's mother for 8 months now to get some cash together for a deposit, so hopefully it will go further in BC. I'm not saying that we will be much better off in Canada, but at least the great outdoors is on the doorstep, all we have here is concrete. Too many people here are paying mortgages/rent that constitute 70% of their income or higher. That just doesn't appeal anymore, hence our intended move.

Re: Not going now
 

Be warned, although I can't talk from actual experience, BC is pretty expensive too.

Have you checked our www.mls.ca?

Re: Not going now
 

Thanks for the link tonster. We're actually going to live with Cand's dad when we get out there to start with, so the cost won't hit us straight away.

Re: Not going now
 

There are actually things called townhomes which constitute good quality affordable housing in a decent environment with a community feel, amenities and a social scene.

Beats a heavily over priced flea infested bedsit in junkieland next door to suicide bombers with the tube rattling the windows, non stop traffic and chirpy cockernee milkmen waking you up at 5am.

I would imagine ?

Rich.

Re: Not going now
 

I'm sorry, but I take particular exception to that statement. Last time I checked in with my relatives who live in various parts of London, there were no suicide bombers running amock up their streets, so gawd knows what part of London you live! Anyhoo, I know the big city has its faults (one of which we know is the stonking expense ), however, people appear to be going about their daily business - if a little on edge. So can we purleeese forego the generalisations. Thank you.

Re: Not going now
 

Townhomes are just terraced houses. It doesn't follow that because houses share a common wall they will be affordable and come with a social scene. In fact, Regents Park, a housing project near here, is made up of flea infested townhomes. There are a lot of drugs dealt in Regents Park and the windows are rattled by the passing of the 24 hour streetcar. I don't think the project is old enough to have ever been visited by a milkman, they died out in the fifties. Jane and Finch and Scarborough, areas of Toronto well known for the number of shootings also have large stocks of townhomes. Otoh, there are some rather squalid looking new townhomes on the old racetrack selling for $850,000.

The style of the house really doesn't tell you much about the occupants.