Former Lancastrian

+1 and to add does the job appear to be more secure regarding getting laid off etc depending on industry you are in.

Ive visited Saskatoon many times and as a city there is nothing wrong with it. Most prairie cities seem to have a reputation of high crime rates but it is usually isolated to certain areas and within certain ethnic demographics in some cases.
Saskatoon has had a bit of a boom over the last few years so house prices have risen but still less than Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton & Toronto.
Would I live there by choice the answer is No would I live there if I had to then Yes and that also applies to the other cities mentioned and others not mentioned.

el_richo

I'm saying the crime statistics would be a factor. Perception is pretty much everything in this context.

That's not the question the OP asked to quantify valid replies.

JGK

Did.

Started out in QC (Japanese company - shite management style) left for a job in ON for a company owned by a US finance group who closed the doors in the early part of the recession. Moved to a new job in Saskatoon in 2009 and have not regretted it one bit.

It's a great small city, the people are really friendly and if I had to do it again would not change a thing.

If you're into the great outdoors stuff the its the place for you. If however you hanker for the big city bright lights stuff, pick somewhere else.

jericho

So what? The OP presumably wants informed responses- not replies from people who have never been there.
If you've never been to Saskatoon, or even Saskatchewan, how can you have an opinion on what it's like to live there?

I see similar responses when people mention cities like Moncton etc. If you've never been there, how can you comment?
The fact is, you're no better placed to comment than the OP.

Novocastrian

I actually agree with Former Lancastrian and Jings. Choose to? No way. But do it for a year or two? Why not? Let's be honest, it's got a heck of a lot more to it than Iroquois Falls.

MarkG

It's a small city that's starting to become a larger one; the local paper was claiming it could double in size over the next decade or two if the commodity boom continues. That means that the infrastructure is struggling to cope with all the new arrivals and it isn't helped by the road works that are being carried out to try to improve them. I can normally drive to work in ten minutes, but last night there was a huge traffic jam blocking the ring road; going the other way, a breakdown or crash on the university bridge can grid-lock most of the city.

Crime is really a non-issue unless you live in one of the areas where drug gangs hang out. I looked on the Saskatoon police site and there were a handful of crimes in our housing development last month, most or all of which appeared to be people stealing construction supplies from the building sites. There was a shoot-out a couple of miles away a few months back, but otherwise most violence seem to consist of drunks stabbing each other.

We'll probably move to Edmonton one day as my girlfriend's parents still live there, but Saskatoon is no worse than any country town I've lived in the UK.

el_richo

So you disagree that the weather, isolation, and its often highest rank in the crime stats would make people think twice? Even though I've not lived there I can form an opinion as to whether it's my cup of tea. It's not and I gave the OP those reasons as he asked. There are more.

Experience and perception can be very different and the latter is often much more prevalent in choice these days. This forum shows that.

Wording is also everything on a public internet forum. If they wanted experienced posters only then say so. That way they don't need your forum policing.

Tangram

You have shoot outs and stabbings in the country towns you've lived in back in the Uk ?!?!?

MarkG

None that I was involved in. None here that I've been involved in either. A quick web search found several reports of stabbings in the town where I grew up in the UK over the last few years, and so far we haven't had anyone walking down the street firing an AK-47, as happened near a friend's house in the UK.

If Saskatoon's murder rate worries you then you should stay in the UK, because Canada's is substantially higher than Britain's. But from the news reports I've seen, it's unlikely to affect you here unless you get involved with drug gangs or like to get drunk and pick fights.

Tangram

Doesnt worry me dude I'm not moving there. I was curious which country towns you were referring to as it didn't sound like the ones I lived in durin my time in the Cotswolds.

KeithSonja

We moved here just over a year ago and I can honestly say that the crime is no worse than anywhere in England, and as others have already stated unless you are into drugs and crime yourself it will never effect you - Murders always seem to be family arguments gone wrong, most often natives and again they tend to live in certain areas.

The economy is booming in Saskatchewan with Mining in the forefront! As a province we currently have more jobs vacant than there are people to fill them and the pay is equal if not higher than some other provinces. House prices are average, especially if you buy in one of the satellite town/cities which are within 15 mins of the city.

I can think of worse places to live and to be honest I would rather live here than anywhere I could chose in the UK!!

jericho

I asked a very simple question- how many of those saying No have actually been to Saskatoon.

No attempt at forum policing- just trying to show the OP to take what they read on here with a pinch of salt.
Clearly, despite what YOU might think of a city you've never been to, the nearly 300,000 who live and work there, have a different opinion.

flat to the mat

Usual suspects knocking Western Canada again I wouldn't choose to live there but work there most weeks,it's a thriving city with stacks of work.
Regards the crime "statistics",easy answer,bomb the small area between 22nd street and Avenue P,no more crime .Stats Canada who come out with all this rubbish say Victoria BC is the most violent city in Canada,work that one out ??

el_richo

If We only take the opinion of those who choose to live somewhere, the replies would be A tad biased.

So do you disagree that people can cite the isolation, weather, and crime stats as reasons for not wanting to live somewhere even though they've not visited? Or do you believe it's not valid unless they physically go to a place?

I can firmly say I would not want to live in Siberia even though I've never been. I have reasons for that too which are equally as valid.

The OP didn't specifically ask for experienced reasons only.

jericho

How about the opinion of people who have actually visited then? Dont you agree that would help the OP more than an ignorant opinion?

You keep mentioning the weather / crime / isolation. If you want to help the OP, why not tell him what it is about the weather that you dont think you'll like. The winter, maybe? The summer? And as for the isolation- what does that even mean? Isolated from where? Is it any more isolated than say, Fredericton, or Winnipeg?
Why not try to be at least a little helpful?