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 :)

Re: Thinking of moving
 

An expat friend of mine explained it very well IMO

"If you moved to Edmonton straight from somewhere in the UK...you'd find it quite decent. But since we've lived in Calgary first, it makes you realise that it's a pretty crappy place"

I wouldn't be adverse to living in one of the outlying towns of Edmonton as mentioned, like Sherwood Park for example, I stayed there for a month whilst working on the powerplant and when all the roadworks and construction are finally finished, it will be quite a good wee place!

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Hi All

Thanks for all of your responses really helpful. Is there any nice town outside of Edmonton that you could commute from?

Thanks

Liz

Re: Thinking of moving
 

The pros & cons of Edmonton, as well as the visa situation, seem to be well covered.

I'm thinking about the 3 cats and 3 dogs: while the expense of transporting them to Canada has been mentioned, what about finding a place to live that would accept/accommodate them...?

Re: Thinking of moving
 

I know we have been looking and there is quite a few pet friendly house, that was also why o was thinking maybe somthing out of Edmonton might be a better option

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Apparently Edmonton airport is the biggest in the country by size.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

I'm glad you're aware.

"Pet friendly" & 3 cats plus 3 dogs may not be quite the same thing ;).

Some municipalities may have bylaws limiting the number of domestic animals allowed per residence (although I think you'd be okay in Edmonton - I was surprised to see how many are allowed!)

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Liz can familiarize herself about the costs of licensing her pets here: https://www.edmonton.ca/residential_...residents.aspx

Re: Thinking of moving
 

There's Spruce Grove on the West or Sherwood Park on the East. SP is by far more well developed and in SG we just got our first bus this week would you believe :eek: It's a 15 minute commute from either and a little longer in the winter.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

St Albert..Sherwood Park..Beaumont...Spruce Grove..Stony Plain at a push

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Quite :).

However it's different in other municipalities/counties - Sherwood Park, for example, which has been suggested by another poster, falls within a county which has a limit of 2 dogs/household...
http://www.strathcona.ca/files/files...aw-85-2006.pdf

Re: Thinking of moving
 

yea but you cant fly direct to Edmonton from the UK anymore...not quite sure why?

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Perhaps because nobody really wants to go there?

Re: Thinking of moving
 

So to sum up don't move to Edmonton í ½í¸ž

Re: Thinking of moving
 

I hear some Syrian refugees who'd arrived in Edmonton last year have now returned to Syria....make of that what you will.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

No, it means make up your own mind.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

It might be a good idea to visit to see if it's for you. It's difficult for people to give you an unbiased view and only you will know if it's a place you could live. I live in MB and lots of people have had negative comments about it, but I love it. It's subjective!
Good Luck.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

No, some of us are just pointing out things you might not have thought about/various pros & cons to consider.

I wouldn't (move to Edmonton), personally, but then lots of people here wouldn't dream of moving to where I live, either ;).

Re: Thinking of moving
 

I think that land mass rather than terminal size.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Too much violence on Whyte Avenue on a Friday/Saturday night :lol:

Re: Thinking of moving
 

No, not at all. To sum up: Go see it, and see what you think.

I can't think of a city anywhere in Britain or Canada that doesn't have both its attackers and defenders. If you decide not to move to Edmonton because some people here don't like it, then you also shouldn't move to Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, or Quebec, etc etc.

Read Wikipedia articles, drive through it virtually on Streetview (at different times of year), browse real estate ads to decipher what they mean. There's a wealth of information available. But ultimately, if you decide to move or decide not to move there without visiting, it's going to be semi-blind, and a leap of faith.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

Thank you great advise

Re: Thinking of moving
 

its the usual people who dont live here..slag it off often never actually being to a place...i wouldn't read anything into comments from people who have never experienced Edmonton first hand.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

If it's like the municipalities I've worked for in animal control there are usually ways of applying for an exemption.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

I think we can say the same about any city/town in any country. Its not the place itself its the people who live there and sometimes the geographic location also is at fault.

So lets concentrate on Canada and pick a few places and lets stereotype them.

Vancouver ; Bloody expensive. Very scenic but its location is limiting growth as there is nowhere to expand. Its population is full of granola eating hippy type lets save the planet and only eat organic food.

Calgary ; Full of rednecks racists and cowboys. If not working in the oil and gas industry then you will struggle. A relative new city that hasn't found its identity yet but also is near to pretty scenery.

Winnipeg; A nothing city stuck in the middle of a flat frozen piece of tundra and is absolutely soulless. People must be idiots to choose to move there. Seriously if not born in Winnipeg why would anyone with a brain cell move there.

Toronto ; Come on who doesn't hate those arrogant pricks from the concrete jungle that is the GTA. Nothing exists outside of the GTA and we are the centre of the Universe.

Re: Thinking of moving
 

St. Albert is voted one of the best places in the country regularly (can't remember the exact phrase). It's about 15-20 mins into downtown Edmonton not in rush hour prob closer to an hour in rush hour. New highway recently opened making commute to the east side a lot quicker. Also has a lot going on the area.

Edmonton is a nice enough place but it really depends on what you like doing - sports facilities and clubs are plentiful, arts and culture less so from my experience.

Re pets - coming into Canada you can fly them as excess baggage but check the limitations to that (icelandair was £150 instead of £1500 using pet transport for 2 cats).

In the summer (may to October) west jet fly direct Gatwick to Edmonton 9hrs . Rest of the year it's icelandair via Reykjavik about 12 hrs or west jet via Toronto 15 hrs.

Weather - cold in winter, changes in the matter of hours. Also very dry so whilst it's cold it doesn't feel it until it goes below -20, at -15 I was warmer than U.K. At -2 because I'm dressed appropriately and it's not as wet.
Summer, big storms sporadically but very warm and dry - we had cracking sun tans last summer (I'm back in uk at the moment for work). The city comes to life for the summer and lots of festivals and events on most weekends.