getoutofbritainquick

That’s not a very good comparison. You moved from a very expensive area in the UK comparable to downtown Vancouver or Victoria to a relatively cheap rural location. We have moved back to the UK from an extremely expensive suburb of Victoria to an amazing place in Cornwall with magnificent sea views. Most things seem far cheaper than BC. House and contents insurance £75 per year, car insurance £350 year, food and alcohol about half the price as BC. We can walk anywhere around town and we use the car about once per week.
One thing I learnt about Canada is it’s definitely not environmentally friendly. Big house, big consumption and massive deforestation especially on VI. Watching Trudeau at Cop was an embarrassment to Canada.
Canada has become ridiculously expensive and congested considering it’s size.

Atlantic Xpat

That's because although its an enormous country, most of the population lives in <20% of the landmass & within 100km of the US border.

I've lived in Newfoundland for 17 years and emigrated from SE England. The last 11 years I've been a frequent (4-8 times a year) traveller to the UK through work so I have a decent sense of costs of living in each place.
Absent housing cost - and for me, property costs here are very low compared to elsewhere in Canada, but not as low as they once were - pretty much all costs are higher here than in the UK. Even Gas (petrol) is becoming more of a wash given gas prices here and the inefficiency of NA vehicles. I expected to pay more for Food - I live on an Island on the fringes of the North Atlantic - but insurance is ridiculously expensive, internet and cellphones, booze etc too.

dbd33

Isn't the price of petrol about to be moot? Soon we'll all do most of our miles in electric vehicles.

Siouxie

Might be worth mentioning which Province you are hoping to move to -- to determine current costings

CanadaJimmy

I think that what people are saying here - that cities in the UK and Canada that offer the same level of opportunities and employment are going to have similar cost of living to each other - is mostly accurate. Your comparison basically confirms that.

Also worth noting you were able to get your amazing sea-view house in Cornwall off the back of your equity from selling your house Victoria in the hot housing market. That's not very helpful for someone starting from nothing in the UK who would need to find employment locally to afford such a house, little of which exists in Cornwall as it is considered one of the poorest areas of the country.

True also. Currently trying to convince the wife for us to go electric when our current lease is up instead of keeping the car - it's a hard sell but I'm trying!

dbd33

If the hybrid commuter car dies the replacement will be electric but, given that there's no commuting at the moment, it's not wearing out so the most likely path to electric here is an electric version of the Ranger; that would allow selling the hybrid and the truck.

glendem4

Costs in the 🇬🇧 appear cheaper from Canada due to many factors, including exchange rates. The loonie is buying more sterling on average over the last 20 years. Its been a while since you could get $2 for a 💷

getoutofbritainquick

I totally agree it’s one of the reasons we left.The cost of living since we arrived in Canada has gone up massively. Property prices are ridiculous and basics like food is very expensive.
We have been back in the UK for 3 months and find most things far cheaper than Canada, food, car insurance, house insurance, alcoholic drinks. There is a real sense of community where we live and to be quite frank we are glad to be back.
A few things we find expensive are cars, petrol, gas and electric but then we don’t have the natural resources like Canada but we do use a lot less which balances the equation. We only drive about once a week so don’t use much gas and the climate is far milder and we don’t use much heating fuel. We walk most places which is healthier for use as well. The scenery is to die for and you can swim in the sea without getting hypothermia. We don’t see many homeless and there is little destructive construction going on.
perfect for retirement. Not much crime in this region either.
I was amazed that we drove from Looe to Newquay and didn’t encounter 1 set if traffic signals! Drivers are also far more courteous in the UK.

dbd33

All of which is true of Cape Breton. Presumably there's a lot of meth in Cornwall, social conditions suggest a market for it. Do you think of drugs as crime?

vagabonding

Agree with Sparky and Dive bar drunk. I've been in Canada since 2004. When I came here, it was a place of opportunity, very low cost of living, cheap housing and a sense of a positive future. Boy has this country changed. Now I'm very fortunate to have a paid off house and done well on the market, but my children don't have a hope in hell. Why anyone with a good job and standard of living would consider moving to Canada at this point in its economic cycle is beyond me. The cost of living is totally out of control. Car insurance is at least triple if not 4 x higher then the UK. Food in supermarkets double, cell phone, triple, and housing at least twice as expensive. We live just outside Toronto and unless you have a cottage its a pretty bland place to live compared to England where you have endless historical sights, coastline, pretty villages towns etc. Don't get me wrong Canada has jaw dropping scenery places but you need to drive very far or get on a plane. I'm surprised there isn't an exodus of Brits moving back to the UK right now cashing out of this massive bubble that is Canada and being able to retire in the UK. Our house was 800k 3 years ago and now worth 1.4 million as a result of this incompetentand reckless government that c continues to print money and does nothing to stop the reckless housing market by stopping people speculating. Canada is the only place now in the world where you don't need physical deposits to buy second homes. Speculators and foreign buyers can keep increasing lines of credit on existing places and buy and flip. Its a runaway train. If you have kids and a couple of cars you need a min of 150k CAD for a comfortable lifestyle. I would say that could be had for half in the UK outside of London of course. Canada has been good to me but I don't think this would be the time for anyone to take a gamble and move here. The economy and bubble is not sustainable and we also have draconian covid measures which many don't agree with.

dbd33

I can't say I've noticed draconian covid measures, generally agree about the economics of moving here though.

vagabonding

Really? Ontario was the most locked down in North America, Toronto one of the most locked down in the world! Now we have vaccine passports (Im vaccinated but question the mandatory enforcement). The bought and paid for media which you could liken to Russian state media continues to whip up covid hysteria over a few hundred cases while the UK barely mentions a case count 20X that of Ontario (I was just back in the UK and society has moved on as really that's all we can do after mass vaccination)

dbd33

This is on the front page of the paper this morning: https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-days-of-covid so I wouldn't say that's barely mentioning covid. I don't see Canadian news sources so I'll take your word for them being like Russian state media.

vagabonding

The liberals bought out CBC. Do you ever see any criticism of the current liberal gov by the media? None. We have the weakest media in the Western World. Many people in the UK were asking me what is happening in Canada. How Trudeau called an election 2 years early, lost the majority vote and then is still prime minister despite waiting 700 mil and the media doesn't question it. Complacency. This country is to complacent of what is happening here. Had Trudeau did what he did in any European country he would be out of office. period. Look what happened to Theresea May when she tried the same thing.I was in the UK for 2 weeks. the papers and BBC bare mentioned it. The news story is in regards to the measures taking place on the continent.

vagabonding

Also you cannot deny we have and had the most draconian covid measures in the western world. Complacency. Canadians are happy to let government control all aspects of their lives. government at all levels is being expanded. Who is paying for this? the Trudeau inflation tax. We have the highest gross debt in the Western world and are relying on future immigration without any infrastructure plans to support it hence why the GTA is a giant car park and we are the only developed country in the world that doesn't even have electrified trains!! a total embarrassment. Don't migrate to Canada is my view