Thinking of moving
 

Hi,

I was hoping I could get some feed back on what it's like to live in Edmonton Canada. My husband has a possible job offer there and we are thinking of moving out late this year with our 3 cats and 3 dogs. Really looking for any advice on how I would look for work, and good areas to live, and what sort of living cost. Have always wanted to see Canada so really excited about this possibility.

Thanks

Liz

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Before you do anything else, look at your options for Express Entry.

As a minimum your husband will need a Temporary Work Permit and it may not entitle you to have one - that depends on his NOC category.

Also, thinking of moving here and being allowed to move here are two different things!

6 pets will be expensive to transport and will probably not all be on the same flight (most airlines have total pet number restrictions).

Edmonton: Bloody cold in the winter. Very flat.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Thanks for the advise will check that out now , and yes already got quotes for the animals and yes very expensive. 😬

Re: Thinking of moving
 

For areas to live SW Edmonton is nice...other options are Sherwood Park, St Albert both have a fair number of expats living there..general day to day living cost work out about the same as the UK some things are more expensive some are cheaper.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Edmonton can be pretty bleak in the winter, though it's usually sunny. If you like skiing etc,. the mountains are a 3+ hour trek. Probably the single biggest issue with Alberta in general right now is the fickleness of the labour market. Other than that i know a few people who live there and love it, and others that migrated to Calgary and swore they would never live in "Deadmonton" again :lol:

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Look at Air Transat for both you and your pets. The cheapest and easiest way. But again, number of pets per flight will be a potential problem.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

My (Canadian) stepson spends a lot of time working in Edmonton.

He loathes the place.

I have never been there so I don't know, but I know him and am inclined to listen when he describes somewhere in such expletive-laden terms.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Thanks for all your replies. My husband may have a choice between Edmonton and Vancuver, but we thought we may make our money go further in Edmonton. Don't know now, that if we can even get a visa . It's all very scary í ½í¸¬

Re: Thinking of moving
 

My daughter is married to someone who grew up in Edmonton. He described Edmonton as being "like the GTA without Toronto". Since the Greater Toronto Area is the city of Toronto plus some unattractive suburbs that put me off ever going there. And it's cold.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

If the company are happy to sponsor him, do the paperwork, pay the money for the LMIA, and they can prove that they've advertised the job nationally for at least 4 weeks and not found a Canadian to do it, then hopefully a visa shouldn't be an issue.

Re: the location, if you search the forum you'll find lots of previous threads with opinions on Edmonton. I've never been myself so can't help with my view, but it does seem to be a bit of a 'Marmite' kind of place, and more seem to dislike it strongly than like it! But a forum search will bring up lots of relevant info.

Best of luck with it all.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Do a search of threads within the last two months and you'll see a long list of my detailed observations on why i would rather be living on the moon, than in Deadmonton, where i've been living for 8 years as of last week. It is in fact the a***hole of the world as far as i'm concerned. Four hour drive to the mountains of BC etc and civilisation of Calgary. (I say civilisation but i do find Calgary more lively than Deadmonton with far more diversity; I spend a week in Calgary for work every couple of months). When i first moved here i lived in the River Valley, close to downtown and nice in the summer. Made the mistake of moving away. Otherwise it's just one big urban sprawl with none of the highlights of Calgary. As you may have guessed i'm ready for a move; if I could move back closer to the water (Vancouver) and not bankrupt myself then I would. If your employer is setting you up to some degree, then I would suggest you look at Vancouver, this is just my opinion. Good luck.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

I live in Red Deer, almost smack bang in the middle of Calgary and Edmonton on the HWY. If we need to go to a store or any other thing a bigger city has and it can be found in Edmonton and Calgary, we will go to Calgary everytime. The only thing I prefer over Calgary is the airport (flights tend to be a bit cheaper and it's a much smaller airport).

Saying that, if it's a foot in the door then Edmonton can't be all bad. Alberta in my mind is a place to try to make money before moving to another Province - even the Canadians do that.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

:goodpost: the problem is when you don't have a plan lol - remember whenever you arrive in a foreign country there's a 2/3 year honeymoon period before reality sinks in.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

I have been to Vancouver and Edmonton only to visit but with the intention of scoping out places to live. We also visited Calgary and many small towns.

Vancouver and Edmonton are vastly different. Both are friendly cities, people always seemed to have time and were very polite and friendly. Both cities are very clean, but that's where the similarities end. I didn't want to live in either, but the main put off with Vancouver was the property price. The main put of with Edmonton was that I found it very boring.

Edmonton
I can't understand why people have such hatred towards Edmonton because to me Edmonton is like a boring polite person. They're ok but boring to be around, they don't inspire much emotion or hatred because they're polite and clean.. haha.

On the flip side, a good friend of mine loves Edmonton, his uncle-in law lives there and they love it too.

It's a very long 4 hour drive to the mountains, a very long and boring drive at that. The country side around Edmonton is beautiful, the city itself is pretty much a grey expanse, although the connected parks along the river are very nice. There's plenty of shops and places to eat out too.

There are a lot of places to camp and do out door activities around the city. Congestion seemed ok. The area down by the university has a street with some quite artsy places and bars which was pretty decent if a little out of the way. With Edmonton, think factory worker, blue collar and industrial but the people are very nice.

Vancouver
For me Vancouver was a very typical modern city. It was clean, very easy to get around, very diverse, decent public transport (for a north American city), good shops and places to eat. Lots of industry and a lot of employment opportunities. The city has no character, there's night life but it seems a bit tame, there's some decent bars. Parks and beaches seemed very accessible.
The thing that put us off was the urban sprawl is huge! Everyone else recognises the 'nice' city in beautiful location and so the property prices are insane. To buy a house in an area you'd want rather than in the sprawl would in our case be prohibitively expensive.
However even with this in mind, if I had to choose Vancouver or Edmonton I'd choose Vancouver (we're actually aiming for Calgary). I think regardless of the property prices, there's so much more going on, many built up resorts for skiing and mountain biking, good and with the mountains and skiing resorts literally on the door step there's things to do.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

My partner's originally from Edmonton, and has family in Calgary. For a view contrary to what many have expressed, his view on Edmonton is mainly "eh". He has nothing particularly great to say about, but doesn't hate the place.

Last time we drove through Calgary, heading west back to BC, he was uncomfortable that I was stopping for red traffic lights.

If you do have a choice of Vancouver, I'd say to go for that unless the cost is prohibitive :)