J-A-UK

We've not been around on this site for a while - We sounded off back in February time when all was tits ups for us. But we kept hope and faith and we are all alot better now. It wasn't easy, but we too are seeing what we did was right and for the right reasons - Sitting back and seeing what we have achieved in the past 10months makes it OK ...... But proviences have different "rules" - We would now say bring it all with you, house insurance letter, car insurance proof of NCB, banks, accountants etc... We did get discount on house insurance and 5 merits(full discount) on the car insurance here in Manitoba.

I believe that where well meaning people comment it must only be taken as an opinion - You'll see that some of the officals wont know all the right answers.

Well done "Hairy Snooter" on an excellent thread which clearly (for some reason) didn't attract an argument!

Dave+Jules

I personally know someone who has insured their car over here with Axa Equity and Law, and they received full credit for their Axa Equity and Law NCB in the UK.

So if you are heading this way then consider transferring your car insurance to Axa Equity and Law in the UK in preparation from coming to Canada.

I do not have any financial interest in Axa Equity and Law or any Insurance what so ever (especially now the stock market has tanked )

sara76

If you fancy yourself as a Homer Simpson then Durham is a good area with the huge power plant expansions planned.

Also as HairySnotter has posted, if you are prepared to take any job until the right one comes along then Tim Hortons, Wal-Mart, grocery stores, First Student Canada are all crying out for people & no they don't judge you on your race, Tim Hortons do not care much even if you speak English very well, as many a times I have found myself repeating myself to a woman I could barely understand with very broken English.

I was lucky that I got the first job I applied for in sales, I used to work for Rentokil Initial in the UK & went to a similar company here, after a year I was head hunted by a competitor for more money & more paid vacation, all things that I asked for as I now had that Canadian experience.

I then went off to have a baby but with child care costs for her & my almost 3yr old was pushing $2000 a month for Montessori fee's (sorry not a great fan of day care or a childminder for our own personal reasons) not to mention we have an 11yr old. So I decided that I didn't care what I did, the $60k+ salary was nothing when after I had paid out all my costs of having my kids looked after & having not much disposable income to compensate not seeing my kids for the best part of the day .

So I decided that I would join First Student & drive a school bus, where my kids come with me, so no lay out for child care. I also work at a Montana's & although the base pay of $7.60 is pretty poor, I can walk out with up to a $100 cash in tips some nights, OK sometimes it is $20 depending on how many tables you get (sometimes only one if a bad night) but my husband looks after them on those 3 or 4 nights I work. Yes we don't see each other that much, but we know our children are looked after people we trust & they are with at least one of their parents at all times which to me is worth any amount of money & it won't be forever.

The hardest job I got was the restaurant job, I was thinking what the hell a person in school had over me, I had worked in bars & restaurants for a number of years, I had my Smart Serve Cert (something you need if you are to serve alcohol in Ontario). However that was more about timing as the time that I applied all the kids were getting out of school, cause since I have been with Montana's I have had lots of people wanting me to go for an interview.

What I am saying is the jobs are there if you are prepared to take anything for the short term until maybe that ideal job does come.

Oh & Hairy, you were in Port Perry last night, not Port Hope! Just as well the wife was driving you home then! lol

fledermaus

It did but most people ignored my comments

Yes, everyone has a different story to tell, and some people chose to only believe the good stories. I did the same before we moved out here.

I have noticed a few posters have replied to your comments saying it was nice to see an honest post, and I dont doubt that your post is honest. However the implication is that other posts that paint a less rosy picture about jobs aren't honest. This is not only wrong it's insulting to those posters.

My experience is that jobs are hard to find and ones that pay a decent wage are harder. We thought the same as you and MOH took any job as soon as he got here. Its been bloody hard and I wouldnt recommend that anyone leave a decent life in the UK to come here. We are happy now, but I am working 2 parttime jobs with MOHs full time one to make ends meet. Its not worth it really.

Elaine B.

From what I remember servers and bar staff have a lower minimum wage. Mind you in the bar I worked in in Toronto we only got $40 per shift

sara76

Minimum wage for a server in Ontario as of March 2008 is $7.60, as of March 2009 it rises to $8.25.

http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/...e/guide_4.html

sara76

We have invited a few people, normally from the post which is more area specific, in fact we met a fair few if not most of them through this site one way or another. I don't have much time to post on here with my 3 kids (one being a baby) & this is Hairy's first post, his wife is the one that normally posts.

Over a period of time people get invited & after a while of living here don't even have the decency to respond, so when they don't bother responding you start to give up inviting.

Also after being here a few years you are busy with your lives & your friends. I think it comes in waves, the first year or so you are looking for those people who have landed within a year of yourself to strike up that common ground, but after a few years your friends are not just ex pats, they are Canadians & maybe other people who have emigrated from other countries, people you meet through work.

We do have one circle of friends where we get together with our local drinking buddies where we do things together, like Halloween, Bonfire night, Christmas Eve, New Years plus a few summer BBQ's at someones house, but to be honest the winter is the better time for it as we are all bored of the cold long nights.

fledermaus

I don't quite understand your answer, I thought Hairy was talking about helping others in the area, maybe by responding to a few posts where people say they are lonely and depressed and invite them over,

From your post it seems thats not the case.

HairySnotter

sorry Fledermaus it is not my intention to rub any one up the wrong way, so please don’t take any of my comments to heart and that goes for any one else that feels that I mite have touched a raw nerve. No one said moving country and starting a new life would be easy. (How many times did people tell you that you are nuts or just looked at you as if you have grown a third eye on the end of your nose when you told them?)

I am not saying that in some areas jobs are harder to find than others, but we had no problem finding jobs. Both of us where working inside the first week of sending out our resume, I had at least four offers of interviews inside the first two week. As I said we are worse of financially in Canada, my wife had her own thriving business in the UK. But now she works for some one else and is not making anywhere near the money she made in the UK.

We came here primarily for our kids and (the UK bashing starts) we feel the UK is no longer the UK we grew up in. Don’t get me wrong I love Scotland and I love the British people, you can’t beat the sense of humor and the good old stiff upper lip (after all we invented the world) I also have the luxury or pain of being in London or Manchester every month (my job sends me back) so I know what is going on over there. But I will never go back willingly to live there with my family, we decided that Canada will be home from the day we landed and we would do every thing possible to make it happen.

We have a lots of expats friends and all of them have jobs they may not enjoy them but they are working. As sara76 said the jobs are there you just have to be willing and able to do them till your ideal job comes along. Remember guys I also said if you are coming to Canada to have a huge house, wallet busting salary and a Farrari then it’s not the place for you. I know some people come over with the proceeds of there inflated UK house prices and can live mortgage free (more power to them) and I wish them well.
But sadly a lot of migrants are not so lucky and those are the people that need to make things work out quickly, or they mite be on the next UK bound plane with less cash than they left with.

Most people that are leaving the UK are leaving for various reasons and that’s there stories to tell, you would not be leaving unless you had some reason to do so. This forum is here to give people information on all the ups and downs about Canada, and it will ultimately help them make an informed decision on how they are going to approach there new life here. (Don’t go to Peterborough no jobs and high water prices) The forum also gives the average Joe/Joes a platform to have there five minuets of fame so remember when your posting to be honest and try to be informative as there are loads of people reading this back in the old country and they may just believe you when you say “Its not worth it really”.


Ps
Thanks for every ones comments and making my first post so painless, and I see I even got some first timers like me thanks guys. My wife who is a regular on this cannot believe that I can string two words together let alone a paragraph that actually makes sense. And to all the people back in the UK we feel that Canada is worth it and if you want to come here just make sure you are well informed and that you have the right positive attitude to make it work.

sara76

No you are mis understanding again.

If you would like me to explain it to you, I moved here with my husband, two kids & the dog in June 2006, yes we were lucky as we wanted to move to Canada & my husband has a very specialised job that not many people can do, so his skills were very sort after. We moved here on work visas & carried out out PR once we were here.

I met my first English friend in the British Isles Shoppe in Ajax as she was pondering over a Curly Wurly. She had been here for 16yrs. We swapped numbers & then met up. She also comes on here for a browse & had already met with a lady who lived in Whitby, so she invited us all over for a chat. I then started to talking to another lady who is a regular poster on here & unbeknown at the time was also friends with the lady & her family that I met up with. They had also been talking to another Scottish lady (hairy's wife) We then all decided to have a girls night out & all met up. A few weeks later we moved house & had a house warming where all the lovely ladies I had met up with & their families, plus a few others through here or the meet up board who I had been in contact with when I was more of an active poster. If you search posts that I have posted in you can see that we do invite people, honestly!
Anyway over the past couple of years we invite the same people, sometimes they bring friends, then the next time we hold these gatherings, the new ones are always included. I introduced a guy that moved here on his own to our crowd, put him in touch with a realtor who he rented through, then bought his first house. He is now so settled with his new girlfriend that we don't see him much these days. Plus others can not always come due to other various other commitments. But we normally meet new people through others, but like I said we don't often have the time to read the boards like we used to otherwise we would be the Samaritans. Like I said I am sure it comes in waves, when you first move here your on here a lot looking for friends or just people who know what you have been through in your area. You meet up, your friends & a few years later they are still coming over for beers. Hairy & his wife are very good friends of ours, our kids went to the same school in Ajax, we all moved to the Bowmanville area earlier this year, we have lived in the same places in the UK, they are online gamers like my husband. We have been on holiday to the same destinations. We have met friends through them & vice versa, so yes they do help others.
If people are lonely & want to meet up with people from the UK then there is a Meet Up group who meet once a month for a drink in a British style pub in Toronto, never been due to having kids & no family to baby sit, but met some good friends via that site too.

http://brit.meetup.com/7/boards/

fledermaus

I don't think we are speaking the same language here.

My points, based on what I understand from your posts were and are;

Well done, you have a life you enjoy here and feel it was worth it. Not everyone does, and it isn't for the want of trying, or a negative attitude. It's misleading to think that a positive attitude and effort is all you need to succeed. Life isn't that simple. Most people start out that way and then for some people depression and despondency set in when they can barely make enough to live on.

Don't presume to tell people that they should be honest in their posts, it implies that they aren't being so already.

It's misleading to say there are plenty of jobs when what you mean is that you found no difficulty in finding one.

sara76

There are plenty of jobs if you have the right attitude & don't mind taking job for $10 an hour to gain that all important Canadian experience, & you don't look at it as it is only 5 quid an hour, cause it isn't it is $10.

Yes you should do your homework & work out exactly what you need to earn to be able to live within your means before coming here & hairy is pretty much ont he mark with his costs, although we do argue that he should go with Vonage for Telephone & Canaris for Interent rather then the Rogers Pack!

There is a very good website where you can out in your gross income which calculates what your take home salary would be.

http://www.walterharder.ca/Take%20Ho...alculator.html

You have to have at least $20,000 to come here in the first place. Ideally if you are going to make that huge jump & move then not only do you have to have the right attitude you have to have enough money behind you for those times where things are not that great, I would say that for a family of 4 your better off with at least $50k.

Yes it is wonderful that we have settled & have made great friends, better the the ones we left behind, but we have had our tough times too, but being strong in our marriage & both wanting the same things & having such good friends made us more determined to stick it out.

The first few years are hard, no one will deny that, & if people get down & want to return back to a country where the economy is pretty crap then there is nothing that no one can do here. It means that they either did not do their homework properly before coming here, were not emotionally ready to leave what has been comfortable for them all of their lives or that they are not prepared to do jobs below their standards to make ends meet in the short term.

I have never said that people are being dishonest in their posts & can not think of when Hairy has either. We just said that if you are prepared to work anywhere then there are jobs.

No one goes around handing out jobs with the visa's at the airport. So if people are coming out here with out a job our point is come with a lot of money behind you, take a job to help get that money coming in, cause in Canada it is not what you know but who you know. Then the nice bank balance can help pay out for those short falls rather then paying for all of it whilst you sit at home missing crap UK TV waiting for someone to knock on your door.

Also helps if you live near a major city or up & coming area where they are building cause you can bet within a year new strip malls go up, restaurants, banks, shops. Yes the automotive industry is a bit dry at the moment, but is that not the case back home. How easy would it be for these people to go back home & find a job or buy a house?

It is hard, but it is worth it to stick it out. I think Hairy's post was pretty spot on, maybe cause I know him personally I know the headaches they had to get out here as a family & the fact that he has to go back to the UK once a month & leave his family for a week or two at a time, is certainly not an ideal situation for them, but he does it cause it is his job, he does it to put food in their mouths & clothes on their backs & a roof over their head. He does it cause they love their life out here & sacrifices have to be made until he wins the 649 (after us!)

fledermaus

Well thank you for that explanation, to paraphrase.

So, you need lots of money to come to Canada because you will have to supplement the income from your poorly paid interim job with your savings, biding your time till you can get a job that puts food on the table and heats the house.

If you don't succeed its your own fault for not getting a job beforehand, but then to get a job here it's down to who you know. (Bit hard that one when you don't live in the country or are fresh off the boat.)

Sacrifices have to be made to live here, unless you win the lottery.

OK, gotcha. That all makes giving up a decent lifestyle in the UK worthwhile then.

sara76

If it was that decent then why did you move?

fledermaus

Because we thought it would be better here. You know, some people come on here and say that jobs are easy to find, that all is rosy. They forget to mention until prompted that those jobs are basic wage, that you have to know people to get jobs etc etc.

There are people who arrive, settle in, have a good lifestyle. There are also people who don't. It doesn't mean that they haven't tried. Posts that imply that irritate me intensely.

Re the honesty part, there were at least 2 references to an honesty.

I feel I am going round in circles here.