snakebite

This may well be just too broad a question, but I've read the Wikis inside out and have to ask anyway!

If any of you guys had to nominate a province to take a punt and fly out on a networking/jobseeking mission, what would it be?

I'm guessing that one answer would be "check the OUP list", but as an auto paint sprayer, there are several provinces that may fit the bill.

The reason I'm asking is that for example, I was told by an Immigration firm in the UK here recently, that LMO's were virtually impossible to obtain for most occupations in Ontario due to Trade Union pressure. BS at all?

Judy in Calgary

It's not BS. Besides that, every man and his dog wants to move to Toronto. The list of Occupations under Pressure in Ontario is fairly short.

If skiing means a lot to you, consider British Columbia or Alberta. But those provinces tend to have high real estate prices.

If you aren't a ski nut, consider:

• the prairie provinces excluding Alberta, which leaves Saskatchewan and Manitoba
  
  
• Atlantic Canada -- the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, plus Newfoundland & Labrador

An auto paint sprayer falls under the larger umbrella of Motor Vehicle Body Repairers (NOC Code 7322). Let's see which provinces list them amongst their Occupations under Pressure. The following provinces do:

Alberta

Oh, I thought I was going to come up with a list, but that's it. Alberta. So your list consists of one province. You said you came up with several provinces when you researched the topic. I don't know where you were looking. I looked at the links in the Wiki article on OUPs.

I'd be careful of Alberta if I were you. Yes, there are jobs here. But, by Canadian standards, real estate prices are high. I guess it depends how much equity you'll be able to bring with you from the UK and therefore the size of the downpayment you'll be able to make when you buy a house. That, of course, will influence the size of your monthly mortgage payments and how much money you'll have left over for other things.

I'm an oddity on this forum, in that I don't come from the UK. Therefore it's impossible for me to say whether or not it would be worth your while to move to Alberta. But I would tread carefully if I were you. It's expensive to replace in Alberta many of the things that you can get cheaply now (or so I read). I'm thinking of cheap Continental getaways on Ryan Air, neighbourhood pubs, better clothes, better food, better hair cuts, and on and on and on.

In my opinion, emigration works if you are really determined to acquire certain things that wouldn't be available to your children in the UK, if you're willing to embrace what the Canadian outdoors has to offer, and if you're willing to settle for a less exciting consumer choices.

A route into Canada that doesn't require a job offer but that indirectly does cost money is the Nova Scotia Community Identified Stream.

You also could get into Canada by starting a business, but that takes money, business acumen and guts.

Those are your choices, as I see them.

Unless you're essentially a refugee from a Third World country who cannot possibly afford a recce trip, as I was 31 years ago, you absolutely must visit what you think you will be your destination province before you make a decision. A recce trip, on its own, cannot guarantee that your initial impressions will be accurate once you're actually living in a place. But a recce trip at least would give you some idea of what you were getting yourself into.

Hope that helps.
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snakebite

thank you as always for a quick and comprehensive reply Judy.