Hi everybody!

We have just got back from NS and it was amazing

Just thought I would post a little about what we got up to as I know many are doing reccies this year and thought it may be of interest.

We went for 9 days and covered approx 2500 km's!!

Prior to going over we emailed our resumes to all relevent companies and got 3 replies between us to go for a meeting whilst we were over.

We are looking to go over on CI stream, so the first day we met with the Colchester RDA to discuss our situation etc, the RDA gave us about 4 more contacts each for potential jobs, so we followed up all of these. Cannot praise RDA enough, Margot is so helpful.

It would appear that job market is about 80% hidden in NS (RDA's words) and this seemed to be true as I followed up one of the contacts for me (an insurance broker) and he gave me the name of the senior manager for claims for the 5 major insurance companies along with their direct tel no and his name as a contact,for me to call. I did this, 2 have come back, managed to see one of them a couple of days later and she has confirmed that she would be able to offer me work when I am there.

I also attended an interview for another Company and this went really well and I am waiting to hear back from them.

Hubby went to a firm in Halifax that he contacted from the UK and they have offered him a job!! He also gained more contacts from each person he met which will be invaluable in the future.

Spent a day driving round Burnside with the yell.com print off of all the Print Firms and dropped in resumes and had chats with people.

We met with lots of people from BE which was really nice and they were all able to provide some real insight to NS and all it has to offer,aswell as how the whole process went for them.

We had a look round at properties for sale which was really interesting.

We went to the Wildlife Park and spent some time in Halifax(Salty's was a really nice meal), in amongst job stuff. Unfortunately we could not go for longer so we were not able to fit in some of the leisure stuff, but we will be back!

It was a tiring 9 days, but very productive and we are now in a position to submit our application under the CI stream The RDA has confirmed that they will write the letter of recommendation for us.

Now just got to sell the house:curse: no viewings to date, although only been on 2 weeks and the minefield of all the forms and getting copies of everything.

All in all NS is a wonderful place, everybody is so friendly and it is so child/family orientated, the scenery is wonderful and the pace of life is just what we are looking for, something slower where we have more time to be a family.

Booked through Canadian Affair, flights all great, spare seats so little one had 2 seats to herself there and back, saved my arms a bit!, got sat nav with the hire car and this was great for finding potential employers offices etc. I also drove for the first time on the wrong side and also an automatic and I really enjoyed it, even did the rotary!!, cannot believe how quiet the roads are even in Halifax!

If anybody would like any further info drop me a line, I hope this has been of interest to some of you.

Nikki

Hi Nikki,

Glad you enjoyed your trip and hope your interviews turn out to have been successful. Just wanted to ask about the community indentified route. Do you have an established relationship within the community already? If not how did you go about establishing yourself in order to go down this route?

I am new to the forum and this is one of the options we are considering but we are unsure how it works if you don't already know anybody in Nova Scotia.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks



Kelly

Hi Kelly,

From our experience of the CI stream each RDA is different in the way they approach the CI stream and what criteria you need to meet. So the following is only our experience. Each RDA interprets the criteria in their own way it would seem.

For us we have made contacts in NS on a personal level and on a professional level and have demonstrated through what we have done to date that we would provide an economic contribution to the province/region through the responses we received for jobs etc. There is a good wiki article on NS CI stream which we found helpful that I think was written by wbexpat and ontheboatout is also in NS having completed this process.

It is all about making contacts, networking and showing commitment, however you will need to decide on a region where you wish to settle in order that you approach the relevent RDA.

We are still learning about the process but it would appear each case is viewed on its own individual merits.

If I can help any further please drop me a line.

Nikki

Hi nikki,
Glad everything went Ok with your trip, sounds like it was very productive.
Can I ask what your husband does in the print trade. I work in prepress and with my wife (who is a Healthcare assistant) we too are looking to go to Canada (preferably Nova Scotia).
We have not been over yet but are planning to later on in the year. Any info would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Steve

Hi Nikki..I'm glad your trip turned out to be a fruitful one...I know what you mean about how quiet the roads are...I drove for 1 1/2 hrs from Bedford to Wolfville a long Hwy 101 in the afternoon and you could have counted the amount of cars on just both hands...

Hi Steve,

Andy is a Print Finisher, Laminating, Spot Varnisher, drop a pm to "flogger" and he can give you his impressions of the print trade in NS!

Glad you had a successful recce! Thanks for sharing your experiences - really interesting to read

We're considering Nova Scotia at the moment... and your post makes me want to go there even more!

Hi Nikki,

Good news about your trip.

We to are looking at NS, I was wondering what your thoughts are about the houses? Are they as good as they look on mls? Do they seem value for money?

What areas of NS do you favour ?

We just simply cannot decide at the mo!!!

Any info would be appreciated?

Regards
Sue

Hi Nikki,
Thanks for that. I've just pm'd him so give him a nudge for me!!!
many thanks again.
Steve

Where you gonna settle then?

Our reccie was ruined by some very cold grey wet weather last summer.

Gotta say its quite weird driving through the countryside passing these huge victorian houses. They're massive some of them.

Thanks Nikki,

You have already been a great help. If I have any more questions I'll be sure to let you know. As you rightly say though we still have to decide on which specific county we are looking to locate to.

Good luck

Kelly

Hi,

We quite like the look of Stewiacke and the outskirts of Truro, The Valley Kemptown, River John and Pictou!

We are looking at area's of Colchester as this is the RDA we are going through.

All I would say re MLS is that whilst some houses are really cheap, it is normally for a reason but having said that you can get really good value for money along with some land which is what we are looking for.

Hi Nikki

So glad you had such a great trip, excellent news about the contacts from Margot. I can't believe you did so much in 9 days.


NovaGirl

Hi,

agree wih you there, we saw a huge house in Truro from 1870, owner was in his seventies and a wonderful man to chat to, could of stayed for hours!