Emigrated to BC May 2010, have to say love the place and would love to stay but the cost of living and house prices... and rates of pay for our jobs.

We have lived in Kamloops and have been in Vernon BC for the last 4 months.

After several months here , living with family(who turned out to be Cranks) and renting for 6 months, we are looking to relocate to another province..

We have never looked at any other areas for the 2 years we were planning our move, so know very little about other provinces and areas... just starting some research now

Any thoughts and ideas would be most welcome

Cheers
Gaz

What is it you love about BC? Maybe you should try and find that or something similar in another province. My first thought was NS mainly because lots of people seem to move there for the cheaper housing etc. Seems popular with Brits.

You are going to find cheaper housing almost anywhere else in the country. Jobs etc. am not sure.

BC for us is outdoors and beautiful scenery, nice peeps.. we come from a city so prefer to be in a smaller city , town or edge or rural.

Our wages permit us to rent a nice place and live, but leaves us very little for savings, to be able to afford a house and save for kids education etc...

I see most provinces housing is more affordable and wages are better in jobs...

I know its not just us immigrants that are feeling it but families who have lived in BC for generations.

I am basing our move on housing & jobs, we have till june to make a decision, things in turn could go for us job/pay wise here but we cannot wait till june to find out

Possibly another thing others have mentioned that having never rented before, i find it hard to settle in a house we dont own. But am slowly coming round to the idea....

Cheers
Gaz

I'd just move to Oliver if I was you. What part of Wine Capital of Canada don't you understand? :-)
If you're going to choose a place to possibly live the rest of your lives I'd recommend the Great Canadian Road Trip. Go in summer when the roads are good, (camp if you want) and have the time of your lives. You can mooch lunches and barbeque suppers off some of the EXPs on this forum and 2 weeks will see you on the Rock. A week to drive back and you will have seen less than half the country! ha ha

This province hopping sounds bliss... and exactly what we were thinking we should do ... any offers of bbqs n suppers on our trip east are most welcome :0)

I will be working all round the Okanagan from jan onwards so will pop into Oliver i have not been any further south past Kelowna as yet...

Could you move the Province of BC our way and bring the climate with you?

Will try and Lasso it and attach a rope to the end of our dodge

The towns in the interior tend to differ quite a lot from each other. Have you looked at other places such as Salmon Arm, Penticton, or even Revelstoke (if you like 2-3 metres of snow in your yard)?

Since you like the outdoors, you should check out the western edge of Alberta, for instance Canmore. It is probably the lowest tax regime in Canada, but a lot of it is still mountains and foothills. Even Calgary is not bad if you live in the western edge and spend the weekends in the foothills.

In Ontario, I would look north of Lake Simcoe, maybe starting with Orillia, but then anything north of that. Again, towns tend to differ a lot from one another due to industrial base and the kind of people that work in the industry. Hard rock miners in Sudbury, uranium miners in Elliot lake.

The eastern edge of Manitoba is OK too. If you look on the map there is a big lake there which has commercial fishing and attracted lots of Icelandic immigrants. South and east of there, you find a varied territory, still somewhat flat but with forest and lakes, like Northern Ontario.

Small town Quebec is out of the question if you are not fluent in French. be careful in New Brunswick because there French-speaking enclaves there too.

Things like real estate prices and employment ads you can research online but you only know a town by going there. The foothills of Alberta are beautiful, the parkland of Saskatchewan and Manitoba is beautiful, (and so, in some perverse way, is the prairie), and the beginning of the Shield from eastern Manitoba into the Rainy River country. But you want a small city. Saskatoon. There's a city for you. Do the research and get back to me. If the economics is what's motivating you to leave the Okanagan then Sask. has the numbers, and every other place except where you are now seems to have crappy weather now anyway. I suppose the OK does have an inordinate forest fire hazard risk compared to the rest of the country... it's never all roses - except in the foothills of Alberta.. sorry, cold weather's brought the rum out
PS; I highly recommend Pizza 97 on the south side of Oliver - they don't open till 3pm I think

Tundra. Bring own job and abandon all thoughts of using the internet.

There can be a fine line between 'endless panorama' and 'godforsaken wasteland'. admittedly
I always thought Grinrod was beautiful and that's in your neighborhood... you must of been through Grinrod?
Post Card material; very pastoral

In some ways Grindrod is like a distant suburb of Sicamous and Salmon Arm. It's actually closer to Enderby and more tied into the Enderby area economy, but places like Grindrod and Enderby may be too small to seriously consider immigrating there, unless you have a source of income that is not tied to where you live.

Gaz - hmm think I know who u r!

Have not been to Grinville as yet, will do a little recce up there and some other areas. I have looked at affordable properties on realtor websites etc

sussed :0 lol