scrubbedexpat091

Just because other's don't like Canada doesn't make anyone an idiot.

Some of us are here because they were born here or because we have a spouse that is Canadian, not necessarily because we want to be here.

doesn't make anyone right or wrong, we just see things differently.

Gozit

I don't see the point of this post, I literally said that if Tam is correct and the COVID rules will remain for 2-3 years I will be looking at emigrating.

Like everyone else wanting to emigrate to supposedly greener pastures I need to wrap up my affairs here, I have a diploma to finish, and the fact that I could be preparing to emigrate in less than 6 months, and my immigration paperwork (non existent due to being a dual citizen) is already sorted it is actually quite exciting.

If I didn't have any obligations here and I had more money in the bank I would have left around June, even temporarily to ride out covid.


You presumably left the UK all those years ago because you thought the grass was greener on the other side, right? Why is it so unthinkable to you that someone might want to leave Canada for the same reasons without taking such offence to it? (Because you do, every time it comes up.)


The answer to criticizing one's country and the rules and customs should not be "if you don't like it then leave", especially as someone who was born here, but when it really comes down to it that IS the only option you have when you disagree with certain things - other than just accepting and putting up with them.

Gozit

And as much as anyone would like to, you can't just hop on a plane and leave immediately. Especially right now it takes some planning, and a good chunk of money. (Which most people probably don't have saved up.)

scrubbedexpat091

There is also the fact the Canada of 50 years ago is not the same one as today, and there simply from my perspective not a lot of opportunity for a couple like my wife and I, and really we simply cannot afford to live in Canada as cost of basics like food and housing is too high.

DigitalGhost

That's such a shame. Where have you moved to now if you don't mind me asking?

scrubbedexpat091

I couldn't hop on a plane to leave Canada today even if I had the money. My passport was lucky enough to expire in 2020, and then the US stopped processing them for months on end, and put a big warning not to send your renewal in for months at a time, and now they finally are slowly processing them, but have over 1 million in the back log, and issue like 274,000 in the last 2 weeks, so who knows when my passport will actually show up.

Now the US is being somewhat understanding, and wont deny entry at a land border, but crossing a land border on foot in BC, well its a very long walk to the nearest airport.....

scilly

I don't really have to tell you .................. we left the UK because OH got a job offer that he could not refuse partly because of the future opportunities it offered if we returned to the UK. We intended to go back after 2 years, but we found that Canada was a better place for us and we ended up having jobs that were ideal for us both.

We would have stayed in the UK if one particular person had been willing to allow OH the freedom to do some research and access to lab space during the summer.

We were also young, and looking for some adventure before settling down into married life and a family. t seemed that 2 years in Canada could be that.

I also won't deny that OH also looked at job openings in other countries during the 80s, when there was a huge recession here. We could easily have moved to NZ or Australia during those years. We had grown past returning to the UK, and absolutely no interest in the US.

One thing we did not do was complain about the UK before we left ........ it was a good place to live. No complaints about the UK back in the 1960s, it was a wild time! The air was clean, lots of jobs for those willing to work, houses were affordable, etc etc. Every one we knew started off married life in their own house with mainly new furniture. Quite unlike here, where most people started off in apartments and had to save frantically for several years for a down payment ............ yes, even back then!

The complaints I make about the UK now are what I've seen on our infrequent trips back when I see how life has changed there, especially for people who don't have jobs, and the small-mindedness of many of our own older relations and friends.

You say I always take offence when criticising Canada comes up. You're probably correct, because I see people as looking to other places as being greener than here, and better than here sometimes without having spent enough time in those other places to know about it.

I see people making criticisms about not being able to buy certain foods, yet I've seen those foods in stores here. I see people complaining about narrower streets .......... streets in the UK are often even narrower than here! Yes, the US often has wider streets and higher speed limits in towns and cities. But is that really and truly better for anyone other than drivers?

But worse is that I see the complaining without doing anything about it. It's easy to sit at the computer and complain, complain, complain. Try to improve!

On the other hand ............ you yourself said above that you would have left in June to ride out covid. Where would you have gone to do that??

You are actually in one of the best places in the world to ride out this storm. It seems that most countries in Europe are heading into a second wave, and re-instituting lockdowns. The UK has never really had control in every part of the country, with massive outbreaks in London, then Leicester, now the north-west. It also sounds as if the job situation is not in good shape.

The Federal Liberals and the provincial leaders here in Canada, whether you like their politics or not, have kept a good handle on things, and have provided lots of money to help most people although there are ones who have fallen through the cracks. Yes, we're going to be in debt for years to come ............ but I see that as the cost of keeping people alive and reasonably healthy.

Now I possibly have a slightly different view of how we've weathered covid than you do as I live in BC and you are in Ontario with Doug Ford who seemed to be somewhat denying covid at the beginning, and where you have had much worse infection and death rates.

scrubbedexpat091

Interior of BC, rent is cheaper then Vancouver, but not affordable, just cheaper, can't mix those 2 terms up, people will often use cheaper in the same format as affordable.

At our income level, affordable would be $627 per month using the 30% financial people recommend. Good luck finding rent that low unless in subsidized housing, which is well not realistic to obtain for majority of people who need it. Demand exceeds supply by a great deal, they would need to build something like 15,000 units just to clear the backlog, but every year there is more demand for it as rents increase more and more and more and more households become eligible.

For Vancouver the HIL (household income limit for BC housing is)

1 bedroom unit - $51,500
2 bedroom unit- $63,000
3 bedroom unit- $73,500
4 bedroom unit- $83,500

A good % of subsidized housing is in Vancouver, the rest of the province is sparse, like our area of the interior, a childless couple like us, there is 0 subsidized housing units in the area, there might be some for families with kids.

Our income is going to likely be around $25,000 this year as neither of us have found a job yet, rent will total $18,400 or so approx (this includes approx 6 months in Vancouver at the higher rent, and 6 months at the current rate.)

So average of $550 per month for 2 adults to cover every other life expense.

Gozit

As I said previously in the thread I would have gone to Malta. They started reopening around the start of June and the airport was open at the 1st of July - so I suppose I couldn't have gone until then unless I went on a government-organized flight via Heathrow or Frankfurt. There is no more public health emergency there and our Prime Minister has declared the country "open for business" i.e. he will not shut the economy down again.

As of now they have almost everything open with no restrictions - though a ban on mass events may be returning.

I see what you are saying about just complaining and not doing anything about it - that irks me too. But there are some things that no matter how hard we try, how much we complain, whether we vote for a different party, etc, attitudes just will not change and the only option is to accept defeat and follow the rules even if you don't like them or go live in a different country.

DigitalGhost

Yeah that has to be tough. Back in the day, this website used to have blogs and articles on it and one of those said that many people were leaving the UK and going to other countries, especially Canada, Australia and NZ, because of a more affordable cost of living. Meanwhile celebrities and high finance types were making the UK their home.

It's unfortunate but it seems like a similar thing might be happening in Canada now. The question is what happens to those Canadians who can't afford the increased costs of living.

scrubbedexpat091

That really is the big question isn't it.

DigitalGhost

​​​​​​It is and I don't know what pressure people are putting on the government to resolve it. NZ took measures not too long ago to prevent non-residents from purchasing property but I don't know if much of Canada has enacted similar legislation or if it's something the federal government have looked into.

I have seen stories about people being turfed out of their homes in Toronto so the landlord can circumvent rent control though.

Gozit

I know BC has some legislation in place but it doesn't seem too effective as there are plenty of people still in JSmth's situation barely able to afford basic essentials.

dbd33

I believe Vancouver was the first place in Canada to implement a tax on non-resident property purchases. Certainly Vancouver has such a tax.

scrubbedexpat091

Vancouver has various taxes in place to discourage empty homes, and BC has some provincial foreign buyers taxes for some areas of BC, didn't seem too effective in lowering rents though, but for rent the problem is simply supply and demand, there is more demand for rentals then supply, and very few rental buildings are built, until rental stock is added in larger quantity and I mean dedicated rental stock, nothing will change.



This article from January 2020 highlights a few things

In 2018, there were 17,450 new rental units in Seattle, compared to just 1,364 new rental units by Vancouver over the same year.

"But when the demand for housing, especially rental housing, in Vancouver increases, we don’t build more. On the contrary, we do everything we can to sabotage new supply.”


“You read that right – we block new rental housing because we don’t have enough rental housing. This doesn’t just defy basic economics; it defies basic common sense.”