2Karen1

Hi, my name is Karen. We , being my husband and two children age 4 and 6, are considering to move to Canada.He is a class 1 driver, which apparently are sought after out there., he has been out there in the army, and loved it, and is itching to go. But i am the cautious one, and came across this site, and was hoping to get some more information and opinions from people who have actually been brave and made the move !

We would be looking at the BC area, so would be grateful if anyone could tell me about their experiences to help me to decide!

Thankyou to anyone who is happy to reply.

NikkiNu

Hi

We have just made the move with two children aged 5 & 3 and another on the way. There have been times when its been really stressful and we have had a lot to sort out on arrival, but even after just 6 weeks things are starting to fall into place. Yes, it is a big risk financially and emotionally but we believe that sometimes you have to take risks, especially to have no regrets in the future.

I think it has been easier because both hubby and I wanted to move, so we have worked together to try to make it a success.

Our children are loving it here and are embracing this whole Canadian way of life.

Have you been to Canada? Perhaps you could do a reccie first and suss it out for yourself. It took us a couple of years to get our visas (I know it takes a lot longer now) but we are glad we applied and have have made the move.

Good luck
Nik

2Karen1

Wow what a speedy reply, thank-you. It is so reassuring to hear from someone with kids same age, for me they are a good reason for the risk, to try to give them a better start in life !

Tangram

Bring a few quid with you.

2Karen1

Oh really, so am I to assume that if we are struggling over here, then it will be as bad over there ?

rae

i've just landed and after several recce trips, yes the expenses are not much different, some things are cheap, bought a calvin klien work shirt from the bay (debenhams clone) for $14.83, whatever that is at the current rate, its cheap, however did some shopping the other day, just me at the moment till missus joins me, $74 and that was just food and not much of it, add toiletries, cleaning stuff, coffee, spices, other bits and bobs and a bottle of wine and you'll not get much change out of $130. that may sound cheap pound wise converted, but change the $ to a £ sign and its not. when you are earning $ you quickly realise this.houses are up up up, fees to buy here just as at home.
don't be put off though, or encouraged, by replies here, bleed the site dry for info, not opinion, then visit and make your own mind up. what i would say is be prepared for lots of crap, if you are not both 100% it won't work. now disregard the last due to it being my opinion and start trawling. best of luck.

dingbat

Impossible. BC = Bring Cash. There are very few good trucking jobs starting out in BC as well and compared to elsewhere, BC pay is generally shite.

June67

Hi Karen
my OH and i moved to canada may 2005 we went to saskatchewan on a provincial nominee program to a trucking company and worked to residency. we did this with a view to moving to BC at the end. when it came down to it BC was just too expensive regarding house prices etc. so we moved to new brunswick. things are much cheaper here although wages are not as good. there are trucking companies here in NB which are taking on british drivers. if you want an idea on house prices in canada look up a website called mls.ca
two of the companies in NB hiring are
Keltic Transportation in Moncton NB and Midland Transport Moncton NB
There are several companies in Saskatchewan hiring we went with Siemens Transportation in Saskatoon they weren't great but better than some. They also hire drivers for Alberta and they also have a yard in BC but not sure if they are hiring for BC but it might be worth a call or e mail
Another company hiring in Saskatoon is Yanke Group again they are not great have heard good and bad things. the best company out here is supposed to be a group called Bison and I believe they are now on the nominee program their main place is Winnepeg, Manitoba but they have depots all over again they may be worth looking up. At the end of the day none of the companies are brilliant if you come out for interviews take what the recruiters tell you and believe 10% of it. Ultimately if you do get out here remember that the first couple of years will be hard but once you get your residency you can live anywhere in Canada and work for whoever you want. It's a beautiful country and the standard of living is so much better than the UK and children have a great life - there is so much for them to do especially if they like sports!! Winter can be hard but that depend on where in Canada you end up. If you want to escape traffic don't move to one of the big citys as they are as bad as the UK- Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal are a nightmare.
Good luck with what you decide - but you really should come out and see a few things first and do some interviews at the same time.

Howard1944

Came in '57, England is a nice place to visit, horrible expensive, terribly crowded, postage size homes, lousy TV, but great culture and good Pubs, although our food here is much better.

Canada takes 7 hours to fly across, the choices are unlimited.

Paul Wildy

Cost of living is not as low as everyone thinks but Canada is a great place to live and bring up children. And after all, you only live once! You could stay where you are but you will be retired before you know it (and that pretty much rules out any possibility of emigrating to anywhere decent as all countries seek working age immigrants) and you will look back on your life and wonder what you did with it and why you didn't go (and by then Britain will be a real hole!).

BC is beautiful but consider other areas too - Nova Scotia is also really beautiful (just less mountainous) and house prices are much cheaper. So if you have at least some equity in your house in the UK you might be able to afford something nice with a lot less debt/mortgage.

welshmountie

Sounds similar to us. Kids ages 4 and 6. I want to go for the kids future. My wife is not sure. However, we have done many reccie trips and our final one before making the big decision is in 2 weeks time. The first thing I'd do is ensure you get a few trips under your belt and not just to BC. Try the rest of Canada.

We're thinking of moving to Ontario but avoiding the big cities. Ontario is a popular choice and compromises between BC's high expense and the Maritime's lesser wages.

To me it is a no brainer that the future holds more promise in Canada than the UK. Other advantages are weather and less of the bad news we've been getting in recent days in the UK. The main issues against leaving are family ties. You need to win them over and promise long vacations for them all. Who knows? They may even follow and everyone will be happy!

I'm not a truck driver, but I would love to be driving across Canada's vast country with long quiet roads. Of course the traffic in around the cities is the same as UK, but there is more relief far and in between.

At the end of the day, my motto is, "If you don't try, you'll never know and may even live to regret it". Good luck.

raine66

Compared to where? 'Coz it certainly can't be Canadian TV your making the comparison to.

PeterF

Another one who's scratching head at this one. There maybe more channels, but I believe quality is better than quantity.

It seems every channel here has one or other of the CSI programs or similar, when these are not on its news or reality. Hmmmm

Ah!! '57. Obviously, there was only a single BBC channel then wasn't it, and that was black and white.. .

Digital back home has improved the number of channels and I believe there is still better quality, although again too much reality rubbish at times.

Thank god I never came here to watch tele though

Howard1944

66, Satellite Dish sure beats those 47 channels of cricket(BORINGGGG)

We can watch BBC, Coronation street, HGTV, ABC, NBC, the list goes on, although 90% of my time is the Business Channels.

NikkiNu

I must say that one of the big things I miss is British TV, the dramas, documentaries, chat shows like Jonathan Ross, dry and sarcastic humour etc, etc. So much American stuff on here and way more adverts - which are generally really poor quality. Gonna look into getting a PVR to record programmes without the ads. If only European Sky channels were available....