johngrimes

Hi,

We are just waiting for PPR now and had decided to move to New Brunswick after our trip to both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia....
However our friends in New Brunswick are finding it hard to settle, they live quite a way from a city and are finding the place they live in really behind in terms of comparing it to the U.K and the children haven't settled, they have been there for 3 years.
My husband is an area manager and myself a nurse and we have 3 daughters, 7,3 and 1. My eldest belongs to a gymnastics club and dances too.
We love the idea of a rural location but are worried re jobs and the children. I would love to hear your experiences if you have settled in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. Really can't decide where would be best for us all in terms of work, lifestyle, children, and cost of housing etc...HELP!!

sinurt

Hi,
Where abouts in NB did your friends move to? We live in Fredericton and love it, my 4yo has settled in really well and I know plenty of others with kids that do gymnastics and dance classes. You can live within 10/15 mins of Fredericton and it will feel like a pretty rural area, acre+ lots type of thing. You should be ok with finding a job wherever you move to so it might be best to start looking for jobs for your husband first and move to wherever he can find work? If he can find work here then Fredericton would fit your other criteria.

Sinead

nldfc

If it was a straight choice between the 2 personally I would go for Nova Scotia

helcol

Why Nova Scotia?

We planned to go to Nova Scotia but ended up in New Brunswick. Do you think there much difference between the two from a work/living perspective?

johngrimes

Hi Sinead,

Thanks for your reply. Our friends live in Woodstock. We love the idea of being rural but feel we need to be within 40 minutes of a city so that our daughters can access clubs etc. What are the house prices like for a 4 bedroomed place with a bit of land? Also where is the best place to look for rented accomodation. Hope you don't mind all my questions!

Kind Regards

Julia

johngrimes

Hi Helcol,

We looked at Nova Scotia originally as it was close to the U.K for flights so we could get back home when needed, but when we visited New Brunswick we loved the countryside and preferred it to what we had seen in Nova Scotia. We visited Halifax, Annapolis Royal and surrounding areas of Yarmouth.

Don't really know if there is much difference in terms of work / life balance between the two, just thought that for job opportunities basing ourselves about 40 minutes from Halifax may give us a better chance of employment opportunities.

Where do you live in New Brunswick?

Julia

nldfc

Just a personnel choice mate - The times I have worked In NB (Saint John ,Moncton & Sussex) I found it to be a bit backward and Saint John in particular I found to be a dirty town.

Thats not meant to be a slur on NB by the way - Its sometimes difficult to get a 'real' feel for a place when you are just there to get a job done and get home again

Cookie

Wherever you choose, 40 minutes drive away is a long long way to attend a club. Bearing in mind we don't really have traffic jams to factor in, it could equate to 60km each way. Not ideal, especially during the winter months.

You can live 5-10 minutes from a town or city and feel rural and have much better access. Be careful where you live because you can become too isolated, especially if you have kids. Also check out the length of your driveway or private road - it will need cleared of snow over winter .

Tangram

I think Cookie's comments are apposite for both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Personally I don't see much difference between the two Provinces apart from there being more Francophones in NB. Both are full of trees, NS has more small lakes, both offer a rural existence 10/15 mins outside of any town/city and both have gentle not dramatic scenery across the whole of their Provinces.

Saint John is an industrial city and even Canadians I speak to and Canadian relatives would not live IN Saint John, although again 10/15 mins outside is beautiful. I would say the same about Halifax from the half dozen times I have been there.

Go where you can earn a living and be happy and be mindful of other opportunities being available should your first job not work out.

My 2 cents.

sinurt

Hi Julia,
Yeah I don't think there is much in Woodstock, I haven't really spent much time there just a passing visit on the way to the border but my OH used to work around there!! Fredericton has a lot more going on. Where HelCol live is just outside Fredericton - in fact we would love to move out that way, it's only 10/15mins from downtown and that's one of the areas where you will get an acre+ lot. A 4 bed house around that area can start around 189,900 - check out realtor.ca for houses. Kijiji is really the best place to look for rentals.

Sinead

BristolUK

A perfect summing up from Tangram.

Pros and cons of "rural" will likely be the same whether NS or NB and probably anywhere else really.

There are certain attitudes and Provincial policies that may be more old fashioned (in a bad way...perhaps Dickensian) in NB than NS.

Silverdragon102

I guess a lot will depend on what you want from life. I live about 30km from Amherst which is only mins from NB so do go up to Moncton now and again. Takes me about 20 mins to get to Amherst even in winter when snow is on the roads. We wanted rural and for us it works really well but I have no children, one of my neighbours has 3 kids and they do do a lot of activities and the kids love it. there are nursing jobs in Amherst and also if wanted to could live in NS and work in NB and many do do it

helcol

I agree that Saint John seems dirty (hardly surprising with the industry going on there). Again, an interesting place to visit, but I certainly wouldn't want to live there. Although the people I know who live there/have lived there really like the place, and all the people I know who come from Saint John are really nice and down to earth (less snobby than those from Fredericton!). I can't really comment on Sussex, only to say that it's small. I find Moncton a strange place. It seems to have plenty going on, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

Being close to Fredericton has worked for us. We can live rurally (10-15 mins from town) and afford a nice house. This would probably be similar for Halifax, although we would probably have had lived further out due to the higher house prices (we didn't have a wad of cash to bring with us).

As for your friends finding it hard to settle - well, they did move to Woodstock! I don't know the place that well, but there certainly isn't that much going on there. Woodstock would certainly appear more backward than Fredericton (I've worked with people who came from Woodstock to Fredericton). We would have struggled work wise had we moved there. I should think that moving closer to the main cities would make it much easier to settle in, especially if taking kids to and from activities.

Like Cookie said, 40 mins can be a long way out due to lack of traffic. I wouldn't recommend any more than 20 mins outside of town, but that's obviously a personal choice.

mcdavis

Our experience of Halifax is a pretty horrific commute in rush hour, and it's a long way to the US for decent shopping.

Lord Vader

I don't think there is much difference between NB or NS in general terms. I suppose NS has more coast and in general is a bit warmer in the winter and a bit cooler in the summer due to the proximity of the ocean. I think more depends on what you want in terms of living in a city or a smaller town or more rural rather than which province.

Fredericton is a nice small city and I like Halifax as well. Saint John is more industrial and the down town seems a bit gothic, but that wouldn't mean much to me personally as a place to choose to live and there are nice places outside Saint John like Hampton and Quispamsis. Moncton is a growing small city. I could find all the shopping I would ever need in any place in NB or NS, but shopping is simply a non factor for me.