Hello everyone,

I'm found this site through a friend and saw a few questions about various places in Canada and one or two about Calgary in particular. So I thought I'd join and give what little help I can.

First I guess some information about me. My first name is Steve and my surname has something to do with my forum ID. I emigrated to Canada in 1963 with my dad at the age of 16. We moved to Edmonton as we had family there. I met my wife a native born Edmontonian in 1968 and was married in 1969. We have two grown sons both married. I am a retired Air Traffic Controller (30 years). We have lived in Calgary since 1974.

I've put together a number of links to give people some information about Calgary in particular but also some on Alberta and some of the surrounding communities.

First Tourism Calgary for those who may be thinking of coming over for a holiday to take a look.

Then one for the City of Calgary all sorts of information about the city and how it runs. One for Calgary Transit you might need to get around by bus or Light Rail Transit. Calgary Police Service you never know when you might need a policeman.

The Government of Alberta website. Mostly boring but might be of interest to some. Alberta Health Care this is Alberta's equivalent to the NHS.

For those with kids the Calgary Board Of Education is the public system here in Calgary and the Calgary Catholic School District is the other major school system. We also have a number of private and "Charter Schools".

The Calgary Real Estate Listings will give you an idea of what house prices are like here.

Google Map of Calgary a pretty good street map of the city with some high definition satellite images of the city (mostly the eastern side).

The Calgary International Airport is operated by a local authority and will be the port of entry for most of you arriving in Calgary.

You'll need to know what the Calgary Weather is doing at all times and of course the Alberta Weather is always handy to have too.

The Calgary Herald is one of our two major newspapers and the Calgary Sun is the other.

Here is a list of our local TV stations.

A-Channel
CFCN
CBC
Global TV

Finally some links to surrounding communities.

City of Airdrie
Town of Cochrane
Town of Okotoks
Town of High River

I hope this is of some help to anyone who takes the time to look. If I have missed anything (which I most likely have) don't hesitate to ask and I'll take a look around and see if I can help.

Cheers
Steve

Hello, Steve, and welcome to the forum.

That's a great collection of links about Calgary!

Here's another one to add to the collection. It's Calgary Baby Zone. Although much of it is aimed at people with young families, it also has links to topics like relocation, job hunting, shopping and many others.

Thanks for the welcome Judy it's much appreciated.

The "Calgary Baby Zone" link is certainly one I would have missed as my kids are 29 and 32 and having kids of their own.

Cheers
Steve

Hello Steve and everyone else in this forum,

I just registered. I am Gabor. We would like to move to Calgary or Vancouver next year, from Chicago. I would be accompanied by my wife, 2 months old son and an Amazon Parrot.

We just got the AOR from Vienna few weeks ago.

Part of me is excited, the other is scarred because the risks we are going to face.

Thank you Steve for your collection of links. I will go an visit them all.
I have a question for you.

You probably know Calgary very well, If you had young kids, worked in IT and had about 50k down payment for a house where (which suburb) would you move in the Calgary area?
Let's say you like to stay as close as you can to the mountains but still live less than 1 hour commute from the city?

I was looking at mls.ca, it is a great website but all the ads say "Great location". Which suburb is really great and still affordable (let's say house for < 300k)?

Thanks
gabics

Oh, my question of course is not only for Steve.

I like to hear opinons from anyone who lives in Calgary or Vancouver area.

Thanks!
Gabics.

Just a link i found www.travelwestvisual.com use the site to find lots of pictures of Calgary and surrounding areas

Welcome to the forum.

That sounds like a Hungarian name. My mom is Hungarian. She left Hungary soon after the Second World War and emigrated to Swaziland, Africa, where she met and married my dad, and where I grew up. She now lives in South Africa. In September 2005 my husband and I met my mom in Hungary, and spent three wonderful weeks touring the country and seeing the places that were associated with my mom's childhood, my great parents and my great grandparents. All irrelevant, I guess, if you're not Hungarian after all.


I like the west part of Calgary, which is in District C on the MLS map. I like areas such as Signature Park (055 on the MLS map), Signature Hill (053), Richmond Hill (057), and Strathcona Park (051). They would give you good access to the mountains, but they also would provide you with a rather short commute if you worked downtown. Areas 053, 055 and 057 also have the advantage of having relatively new houses that would not require maintenance for some years. The houses are old enough, however, to have somewhat established trees in their yards.

Another cluster that I like is in the northwest part of Calgary, in District A. I'm thinking of neighbourhoods like St Andrews Heights (413), University Heights (416), Dalhousie (422), Varsity Village (424) and Varsity Acres (426). It has many of the same advantages as the previously mentioned cluster, with even more established trees. A potential disadvantage you could run into is that the houses are getting up into the age group in which they require renovation, redecorating, major maintenance -- if a previous owner hasn't already done all that stuff.

You can find cheaper properties on the far outskirts of the city, where the houses are new, where there are no trees yet, and where there may not be a school for years to come. If there is no school in the neighbourhood, kids are bused to schools in other communities. Usually young couples who are buying their first house (often called a "starter house") buy properties in those kinds of neighbourhoods.

Actually that claim is not as far fetched as it may sound, because much of Calgary is pretty good.

Basically the the northwest, southwest and far southeast are good. Communities that are closer to commercial / industrial areas are less sought after. Most of them are in the northeast and close-in southeast.

As I said above, there are some good areas in the southwest and far southeast. However, if access to the mountains is really important to you, the west and northwest would be better. In that case you should avoid the southeast and that part of the southwest that lies south of the Glenmore Reservoir. To express that in terms of the MLS map, avoid all of District D and that part of District C that lies south of the river. You should be focusing your search on the part of District C that lies north of the river and on District A.

There are some people who love living in outlying towns like Cochrane. The commute might fall within your parameters in summer, but not when we have a blizzard in winter. At one time my husband and I seriously investigated the possibility of moving to a charming town called Bragg Creek. After weighing up the pros and cons, we decided against it, and now we're really pleased with our decision. But there are members of this forum who are very happy in towns like Cochrane and Bragg Creek, so I feel it's only fair to mention them.

Because Calgary has many decent neighbourhoods, I don't think it's worth your spending a lot of time agonising over which community you will live in. At least insofar as Calgary is concerned, you can afford to move on to other aspects of the immigration process.

WOW Judy! That was a ton of information. Thank you very much!

Yes we are Hungarians, we live in Chicago since 1999.
We are (were?) trying to immigrate to US, but it is a nightmare.
Just an example: I am a US PR. my wife is on visa. To get my wife a PR may take about 5 years and the first 3 of that 5 she would have to go back home and wait there. Not with a 2 months old boy on my lap, no way!

There may be some legal tricks that my lawyer can try but no guarantee.

So we may just pack an say goodbye to Bush-Land.

As far as the Canadian immigration, I am less worried. We should have 90+ points on our application and never broke law anywhere. Assuming we pass the medicals and the immigration laws will not change we should be able to land next year.

Now I am trying to foresee (naive, is it not?) or situation in case we decide to land.

I will now look at the houses at mls.ca with a lot better knowledge about the area now.

I actually thought Cochran (or similar town) would be an ideal place for us. If the average commute is still less than an hour I am ok. Now I drive about an hour each way in ideal case and sometimes more when I have to visit clients further (I am a consultant).

I will definitely look at those areas you suggested.

How is the pollution in these areas of Calgary?

Thanks Again!
Gabics.

Hi Gabics,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for the kind words regarding the links, I hope they will be of some use to you.

I don't think I can add anything more to Judy's most informative reply. I will say that I live in Dalhousie and find it an ideal location for getting anywhere in Calgary and out to the west. I worked just west of the city (Springbank Airport) for 25 years so it is an ideal location for us. Our home is about 33 years old and it is in need of some renovations although we have already done some there are more needed.

Cochrane is very nice I have a friend who lives there and loves it, a forty minute drive to downtown Calgary and although Judy is correct it could be longer with a heavy snowfall that is not something that happens with any sort of regularity perhaps once or twice a winter.

As far as pollution goes it is by and large a non-issue in Calgary although we do occasionally get temperature inversions that trap the pollutants at the surface this is mostly a winter thing and not something that happens a lot. I would think that it is definitely a non-issue in Cochrane as the prevailing winds in Calgary are West to Northwest.

If there is anything else you would like to know don't hesitate to ask I'm sure between Judy, myself and others we can get an answer for you.

Cheers
Steve

What do you think is the best time of the year to look for a job in Calgary?
I am looking for a job in IT.

People here (Illinois) say that the last few months of the year is hopeless, the first few is the best.

What do you think?

I just read on one of the threads that someone who sent the application to the Vienna embassy got his passport stamped in 4 months!

We sent in the documents in May. Maybe we will have it by October?
My knees just started to shake... I am brave, I am brave... just need to say this many times and everything will be ok, right…?

Gabics.

Well I don't know about jobs in IT. Generally speaking, however, I would say it's probably true that the beginning of the year is a good time to look for a job.

Decision making does not entirely grind to a halt during the summer, while people are taking it in turns to be on vacation. However, decision making does slow down during that period.

Activity picks up again at the beginning of September when everyone is back at work. However, you do run into the phenomenon that some departments are waiting for budget approvals for the next year before they implement big projects. This can cause them to go into "wait and see" mode when it comes to hiring in the fall (autumn).

Things definitely slow down around Christmas. If you haven't secured a job by December 1st, I think there's a good chance a decision will be postponed until the New Year.

I don't know if the cycle I've described applies to IT, but it's the cycle that I've observed during my work in Calgary.