Well I wrote a post just before coming here and said I would give some regular updates, so here is update one. I was lucky enough to have secured a job before coming to Nova Scotia. It was obviously a great weight off my shoulders to have secured employment before actually getting here and in a position of the same level that I was working in, I am a Project Manager.

We flew into Halifax via an overnight stop in Toronto, as it turned out to £500 cheaper. Air Canada rob you blind with the direct flight and I couldn't find any other direct flights. We were dreading the flights as we have a little boy just short of three and he can be a handful in these situations! Fortunately the use of his personal DVD player and loading my iPad with lots of kids stuff helped in this department, so the flights weren't too bad.
My job is for a firm on St. Margaret's Bay so we initially got ourselves a holiday let for three weeks that we managed to negotiate a good price on. We thought that would give us enough time to then find another place to rent longer term until we felt right about buying. It is a lovely place in Hubbard's Cove overlooking the water, about 40 minutes up to Halifax. It is a 30 min drive to work around the Bay, a beautiful drive and only one set of traffic lights!

We also hired a car for two weeks, again hopefully enough time to buy one. We came over with about $15,000, leaving the bulk of our money in sterling (betting on a better rate next year!). Obviously having a wage straight away takes the strain of the initial money drain, or so we thought.
I started work the Monday after getting here on the Friday. TIP No. 1 - if you are lucky enough to get a job before coming over make sure you get over a week or so before. The amount of running around you have to do getting driving licenses, looking for cars, accommodation, etc. puts a big strain on you if you have to go to work as well!

My job, by the way, is fantastic. It is going to be very challenging, but the people are nice and really friendly. The first big shock at work has been my wage slip, I couldn't believe how little I seemed to end up with and still have to get to the bottom of things there as I can't believe I lose over thirty percent of it every two weeks!

My wife and son have settled in well. One of the things we were worried about was the lack of community there might be, due to the lack of 'village centres'. Fortunately we have already found that Hubbard's has a nice little community, a farmer market on Saturdays and lots of events through the year. My son is already in a play group two days a week and hopefully we can get him in three days soon to allow my wife Sara to try and find some part time work (she is dying to get out to work again!).

Trying to find a car we liked turned out to be harder than we expected. It took us nearly three weeks in the end. We managed to get finance for half of the price, so that is our credit history starting to tick again. Insurance quotes were wide and varied, but we managed to get cover (Nissan Rogue) from a company near Enfield for about $800. It was mostly painless, done by phone and email. It was slightly complicated by my neighbour in the uk reversing into my car half an hour before leaving to sell it, but that is another story! If anyone wants my insurers name here feel free to pm me.

So car sorted onto finding a house. Being a semi rural location, finding a suitable rental has been difficult, especially after finding that we really liked Hubbard's. Again fortunately the owner of our holiday let has said we can have the let until June, all in for a thousand a month, result! So pressure off for a few months and we can look at places to buy instead of rent. As the place is furnished it has been a bit of squeeze getting all our stuff that was shipped over in, but ok.

So house sorted, for the moment! What are our first impressions? It is as expensive as we have been led to believe. There always seems to be some hidden cost somewhere. Register of the car plate - extra. Drivers license $ 75 each! Food does seem rather on the steep side. In all this though I keep thinking Canadians seem to be able to live with it so we must be able to get used to it. It has been really frustrating sometimes this month, trying to set things up, but once this is all out of the way, we can settle down to 'normal' life. What that is down here we obviously don't know.

We are by the sea, surrounded by lakes and beautiful trails, so when the summer comes around we can get out to enjoy all these lovely places, which is one of the reasons we moved here. It is only a month but I know we have made a good choice. Apologies as I am not sure this post has been of help to anyone, a bit of a ramble! All I know is, for the reasons we chose to come to Canada, it seems we are on the right road. If anyone has a particular question for me feel free. Oh and I wish it would flipping snow for Christmas, coming from living in snowless Cornwall, a bit of the white stuff would be nice! Happy Christmas and don't give up on the dream!

Congrats and sounds like things are slowly working themselves out

I think perhaps you might just get your wish. Merry First Christmas and good luck

Nice thread
your in the best place if it does snow

Great thread Charlsar, we are on the band waggon of following in your foot steps to live in NS, so any little snippets of info help add to our big folder of research, glad things are working out for you keep us informed hope you have a white christmas.

I've been here 5 years and still haven't got used to that, it gets a little easier part way through the year once you have paid up your CPP and EI contributions.

Great forum post with so much useful info for us wannaby movers (we move next year).


Many thanks

"losing" around 30% of your salary is quite normal ............ it could even be more if your employer has a private pension plan that you join.


You have to pay Provincial income tax, Federal Income tax, CPP (Canada Pension Plan), OAS (Old Age Security), and then the company pension plan.


and, yes, it can be hard, especially during the early years ................ I can remember many times when there were was too much month left at the end of the money.

............ and my OH was earning a good salary as a university faculty member, and I was working half-time as a technician. Both earning far more than we would ever have earned in the UK.


It does get better ................ and the private pension plan that we had to subscribe to means that we are able to live very well as retirees