Well, I'm a couple of days late but my first Canniversary was on 1 May.

My (cradle Canadian; born in Vancouver General Hospital) +1 and I are absolutely loving life in Vancouver, Canada. The last 12 months have been amazing (up until recent events, of course). We love living here, love the life, love the people, love our new city - you get the picture. We've thrown ourselves into life here - established our routines, joined clubs and activities, engaged with our community and made friends.

Probably my biggest beef with life here is shelf sticker prices not including tax and container deposits! So pretty small beer in the scheme of things.

British Expats was an invaluable source of information and advice throughout the permanent residence application process. Thank you to everyone.

Now counting down the days until I can make my citizenship application!

You get used to stuff that annoys you/not the same as the UK in time. It used to be price of cheese for me. However, I still hate the banking system here!

congrats on the Canniversary

Congrats. Every time that comes up most people appear to think it's a good thing as they get to see how much tax they're paying. I'm not one of them.

As for the bottle deposits, I'm more irritated by the fact that here we only get half of it back. Not that I've returned any for a few years. We put our empties out for someone who once asked if he could have them and now he gets them every week.

Congratulations! Great so see another person make a happy life for themselves in Vancouver.

it’s been much better since the lockdown.

I hear you on the non inclusion of tax on goods ticket prices! even after well over 10 years it still catches me out....it makes no sense! I think that and hardly any vacation are the two of the things I hate, amongst some others......

But as I have said before its all about the big picture, and it sounds you are certainly embracing the big picture!! Glad to hear your settling in well and enjoying your new life!

Congrats on your first year! May all your other anniversaries be as happy!

Stick around... keep us updated

Congratulations! Hope all this craziness is over by second anniversary 🥂

From memory, when the GST was introduced in 1991 stores had the option of including it or not including it in their pricing. Most stores excluded it but one store chain, Woolco, included it, so their prices seemed higher than their competitors. Their sales suffered badly. I don't remember if they changed their policy but 3 years later they were bought out by Walmart.

That's interesting.
On the other hand "The price you see is the price you pay...no hidden extras" has been considered a successful advertising campaign and as an example, flights (if anyone can remember them) in the UK have long been advertised including all the various extras.

It irritates me to see "7 night vacation for $649" and then taxes taking it well past a grand.

I think that is in NB only . I was in Alma, NB a few years ago and paid for some type of cold drinks for the family and I got a real shock on the prices as the deposits weren't quoted. I was then told that I could get 1/2 the deposit back if I took the empty drinks bottles to some place 20 km up the road. It seemed like some sort of inside job scam to me to make it look like you could get money back but weren't really.

Not been here long at all but yeah the bizarre way the sticker price is not what you pay is most irksome. The locals seem to be brainwashed to believe its a great idea because the tax is not hidden in the price. It's bonkers all that matters, to me is what I have to pay!

Thank you everyone for your kind wishes (and the mutual commiserations over complicated pricing LOL).
Cheers
MelVan