Hi all. I really want our decision to move to Canada to be totally based on "wanting to live in Canada" as opposed to "wanting to leave the UK." (If you understand what I mean.)
However, I have had a gutful of the "must do it our way" brigade this week, from banks to taxman to traffic wardens, all for petty, silly, jobworthy reasons!!!

For example, I got a phone call yesterday from the policestation in the local town telling me that my 14 yr old son had been involved in an incident. Now I hear you ask, was he stealing, mugging, taking drugs, raping???
No - he had dropped a chip paper!!!! WTF!!!!!
I understand that he shouldnt have dropped litter but what was wrong with simply telling him to pick it up, why phone me, log it as an offence and make a big deal out of it?? I know why, JOBSWORTH!!!

So my question is;
Is Canada obsessed with red tape?
Is there a jobsworth mentality?
Is it possible to just live your life in peace without being constantly told that "it must be done this way now".
Is there any common sense left there as there doesnt seem to be here?

I feel better already for gettin that off my chest but would love to hear your opinions.

Actually, one of the joys for me of Canada is less litter. I've often wondered if expats export their littering tendencies with them as 50% of Brits litter. I supppose they do not realise that rubbish is killing animals both near and far in various different ways...

But I'm sure you are not including been told off for littering as being made to do things you don't want to do so I digress....

I'm told by my Canadian friends that they find government agencies in Canada pedantic in the extreme!

D'ya know, I don't often say this to posters, in fact never, but if you are so unsure, either take a recce and/or decide not to pursue this. I think as IainK said to you, shit or get off the pot.

Yes that was really helpful!!!!!

What a poetic way of putting it

To the OP I think you'll find your fair share of red tape in Canada from my experience it's really no better or worse.

And by the way, which part of my post mentioned being unsure?
None I think you'll find. I was asking about a specific issue which I thought was the purpose of a forum.
So if you dont have anything constructive to say why dont take Iaink's advise yourself, which by the way I found extremly rude.

Interesting, I'd be exactly the opposite. If either of my children committed a criminal offence (which littering is even though a minor one) then I'd want to know about it. I'd be really annoyed if I later found out that they'd just been told off and I hadn't known about it. I certainly can't see any police officer giving himself extra paperwork for such a minor offence unless he had to so I'm guessing that he had to phone and tell you as your child is under 18?

Anyway, just my opinion! There is somewhere in the Wiki where it says that Canada usually has more 'red tape' than the UK because of all the provincial governments but I can't for the life of me find it now, I know I've read it somewhere.

It's probably in one of these articles though if you wanted to have a hunt.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Catego...ada_Challenges

Are they pedantic?...

Here's one of my old threads

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...47#post5464147

I'm smiling now though


As a dog owner I was shocked that you cannot let your dog off its lead to have a run in public parks (not even the quite out the way areas with no-one about), the only place you can is 'dog walking areas' which are usually pretty awful from my experience.

After reading that I think I should retract my earlier comment that Canada is no worse than the UK, I was forgetting about stuff like that

A Montreal man fined $455 for feeding a squirrel in a Westmount park said he'll fight legal action taken against him.

Bruce Kert, who also had an arrest warrant issued against him, vows to get his day in court to end the legal tangle that snared him two years ago, after he threw peanuts at a squirrel during one of his regular long walks through the affluent Montreal neighbourhood. It's illegal to feed squirrels in Westmount.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/st...0.html?ref=rss


Better get your son to stop his littering before he becomes an expensive liability for you if you move here.

Red tape is Red Tape its the same no matter where you live except here it has little white Maple leaves on it

Speaking of Montreal I just remembered the Quebec language laws how could I forget I must be getting old and forgetful.

It has always amused me that in France a `Stop`sign says STOP but here in the French areas a `stop`sign says ``ARRETER``

check out the most stupid laws in Canada>

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...ada.html?cat=2

Those are just mad but what I really want to know is are there jobsworths out there hell bent on implenting their petty little rules.

Ps. I dont include littering in that, of course I understand its a no no.

My own experience with the local bureaucrats has been entirely positive. The attitude that I have experienced are ones of people trying their best to help despite the rules, rather than arbitrarily quoting them. But your millage may vary.