MrGreen

If you live in Calgary (other than deep south) you're never far from downtown and it has great nightlife. Anything you can think of as like any city...theatre, great restaurants, movies and independent films etc, clubs, bars, lounges, live music/bands, live DJ's, open mic nights, poetry nights, casinos...nightlife is great IMO.

piedpiper

It's less common for people to commute from High River into Calgary than Okotoks (if you end up working in Calgary), although people do. For one thing, housing is a bit cheaper in High River.

You may want to check out the citystats.ca profiles, which have a fair bit of interesting data:
http://www.citystats.ca/city/Alberta/High-River.html
http://www.citystats.ca/city/Alberta/Okotoks.html

Getting There

The Okotoks population is now about 21,600.

Eamonn & Janet.

ann m

Wow - that's snuck up quietly

wiggs1034

We would strongly reccomend the French Immersion program available in both Okotoks and High River (not through the Catholic system though, I believe). Your kids are the right age to start it, as ours were, and have no regrets. My seven year old now completely out performs my (limited) French. It is an amazing opportunity.

Almost Canadian

Except that they may find that they struggle when they hit higher levels of education as their total immersion in French will leave them lacking with their ability in, for example, English grammar.

I have no direct experience of this, but this is a criticism that I hear from those that have been through it. I suppose one needs to balance the chance of using French with the potential downsides of having virtual total French instruction.

triumphguy

NB. Every now and then people figure out why the Town is called High River; and wonder why they never thought to ask before!

Getting There

Good point...something that I am careful to mention to real estate clients.

A useful resource on this for anyone interested...

Alberta Environment Flood Website
http://environment.alberta.ca/1291.html
And within this, the flood map…
http://www.telusgeomatics.com/tgpub/ag_flood/

Eamonn & Janet.

triumphguy

It's just certain low lying areas next to the river (which can be high!) you've got to be careful of!

GeDe

thanks for all the replies everyone Mrs GeDe has her exam to sit this Monday, so she is stressed out at the moment, no dowt after Monday She will be firing questions off at all of you

Mr Triumphguy We had heard that it floods now and again in both High River and Okotoks, is this a annual?

Getting There

Good luck to Mrs GeDe with the exam.

A poll of all of our colleagues in High River has revealed nothing of concern about the High River Catholic elementary, the Holy Spirit Academy. None have had children there but none have had any negatives reported by their own clients.

http://www.redeemer.ab.ca/hsa.html

Certainly, in Okotoks, it's down in the river valley that there is greatest risk but flooding is not an annual event. The bulk of the town is not likely to be ever affected. High River has more residential areas at risk but again, it is not all areas of the town.

Eamonn & Janet.

The Ross Family

Please come to Okotoks if your wife is a GP, like Getting There I will be outside her office before she can open her doors.

My daughter goes to Dr MG, yes it's different to the UK school we are used to but not in a bad way.

High River is a smaller 'western feel' town and therefore does not have all the amenities that you may be used to, work colleagues who I work with and live in HR do also demoan this fact. The new Town Manager is trying hard to update and improve transport links and facilities but these take time.

The 'new' town website (not all my own work) will list all the events and give a feel of the town. Okotoks also has it's own very informative one.

Like Snoopster and Getting There more than happy to answer any questions.

The Ross Family

triumphguy

It's not annual, and over the years certain measures have been taken by the town's engineers to prevent it.

Getting There

Totally agree with this. Compared to our norms from the UK, Okotoks feels like a friendly and welcoming town, none too busy. High River feels even more so. One of the things that Jan likes about working in High River, is that people know her name and wave and stop for a chat. And you will see rather more Stetsons and boots down that way, which, for us at least, is a nice thing.

Eamonn & Janet.

triumphguy

Millarville, Turner Valley and Black Diamond are nice areas too, and not too far from the city (if you are used to a British commute).