S/O Moving to Canada?

[OrganicJen]

Is anyone else seriously considering moving to Canada? Since health insurance rates for us are sky rocketing in a month and it won't even cover much, I did some research and even considering taxes and salary there etc., it would give us around 20k extra per year to move there. That's a lot of money to save or enjoy. Plus I think I would be less stressed about healthcare and other things too that I consider positives about their laws. I feel like my quality of life would improve dramatically. Being stressed about healthcare just weighs on a person. Is anyone else seriously considering this? To where in Canada would you want to move?

[regentrude]

I don't think one can simply "move to Canada". Unless you fulfill certain criteria, immigration will be difficult - like in most developed countries.

[OrganicJen]

I used their online questionnaire and meet the requirements for permanent resident status or citizenship.

[OrganicJen]

I think I didn't look into it for a long time because I thought it would be too complicated but it actually looks very easy when I read the requirements.

[Arcadia]

We want to move to the major cities so places like Toronto and Vancouver. When we were at Toronto and Niagara Falls for a vacation, groceries and gasoline cost more than here in Silicon Valley. Housing isn’t cheap either whether buying or renting.

 

A friend migrated to Calgary but he works from home and flies domestically often for work. He says it gets really cold there. Another friend migrated to BC. Both had job offers in Canada before migrating. One is with NetApp, the other is with EA.

 

Link is to cost of living estimates for Toronto in USD. The food, groceries and gasoline estimates were close to what we paid https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/toronto?currency=USD

 

We met a Toronto native working in Baltimore, Maryland because he was jobless in Toronto. He takes the Megabus back to Toronto often to stay with family on weekends.

 

A family friend was sponsored for Canadian permanent residency by her Canadian relatives. Took her two years for permanent residency to be approved.

[OrganicJen]

I've been looking at the Calgary area and it isn't more expensive than where I live now. I also qualify for their express entry because of my particular degrees. I can put up with cold winters for 20k extra a year.

[sassenach]

I could never, ever, ever deal with those winters. For any amount of money. But I have never lived in a state that had another state south of it, so....

 

Best wishes in your investigation!

[sassenach]

I've been looking at the Calgary area and it isn't more expensive than where I live now. I also qualify for their express entry because of my particular degrees. I can put up with cold winters for 20k extra a year.

Calgary reminded me a little of Denver. It has that plains next to mountains feel. Also, downtown has tubes connecting buildings that look like giant hampster tubes.

 

And there was still snow in the mountains when we traveled to a July wedding. 

 

That's what I know about Calgary!

[SproutMamaK]

Calgary is a LOT colder in winter than you be prepared for, lol. That being said, there are a lot of smaller cities in Southern Ontario that have lower COL and a climate that's quite similar to the East Coast. (Quebec has this as well, but depending on where you move you may find that the culture is not overly welcoming to Anglophones.) The East Coast provinces have a MUCH lower COL, but also much fewer resources, lower pay, high unemployment, etc. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/07/12/best-cities-jobs-affordable-homes_n_10740892.html
(Fair warning that anywhere within an hour of Toronto has had a housing boom since this was written, and housing is no longer quite as affordable.)

Edited December 6, 2017 by SproutMamaK

[kiana]

I'd move if I could. 

[Peaceseeker]

I dream of moving to Prince Edwards island and working from home via internet. I bring it up several times a year, especially in the heat of summer. No one else in my family is on board and I have two seriously cold natured people in my immediate family. Like lips are chapped year round on one and the other claims she will die of hypothermia when she gets a bit chilly on a late summer night. But if it weren't for them, and if Canada would take me, I would go in a heartbeat.

 

I may have watched too many Anne of Green Gables movies as a child though...

[OrganicJen]

Calgary is a LOT colder in winter than you be prepared for, lol. That being said, there are a lot of smaller cities in Southern Ontario that have lower COL and a climate that's quite similar to the East Coast. (Quebec has this as well, but depending on where you move you may find that the culture is not overly welcoming to Anglophones.) The East Coast provinces have a MUCH lower COL, but also much fewer resources, lower pay, high unemployment, etc.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/07/12/best-cities-jobs-affordable-homes_n_10740892.html

(Fair warning that anywhere within an hour of Toronto has had a housing boom since this was written, and housing is no longer quite as affordable.)

I was reading about those hamster tubes in Calgary they really look cool. I spin my own yarn from wool and love knitting and weaving and I get annoyed when it isn't cold enough in the winter to wear my hand knitted wooly items enough :).

[OrganicJen]

Link?

 

I’d move there in a heartbeat if I could.

I think this is where I found it...

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/come-canada-tool.html

[OrganicJen]

I dream of moving to Prince Edwards island and working from home via internet. I bring it up several times a year, especially in the heat of summer. No one else in my family is on board and I have two seriously cold natured people in my immediate family. Like lips are chapped year round on one and the other claims she will die of hypothermia when she gets a bit chilly on a late summer night. But if it weren't for them, and if Canada would take me, I would go in a heartbeat.

 

I may have watched too many Anne of Green Gables movies as a child though...

I'll have to look into Prince Edwards island too.:) I loved Anne of Green Gables.

[Liz CA]

Is anyone else seriously considering moving to Canada? Since health insurance rates for us are sky rocketing in a month and it won't even cover much, I did some research and even considering taxes and salary there etc., it would give us around 20k extra per year to move there. That's a lot of money to save or enjoy. Plus I think I would be less stressed about healthcare and other things too that I consider positives about their laws. I feel like my quality of life would improve dramatically. Being stressed about healthcare just weighs on a person. Is anyone else seriously considering this? To where in Canada would you want to move?

 

Nova Scotia, coastal area :)

But I think it's not all that easy. Is it mostly healthcare that has you feeling down or are there many other aspects of life in the US unpalatable to you?

[MistyMountain]

We looked into it seriously. I do wish we did it. My dh's profession was one that they needed but the process was two years and they had a cap of his many they would allow. I do kind if wish we just did it. I would love to live there.

[OrganicJen]

Nova Scotia, coastal area :)

But I think it's not all that easy. Is it mostly healthcare that has you feeling down or are there many other aspects of life in the US unpalatable to you?

It's healthcare and many other aspects of our society. An example of just one issue in addition to healthcare is guns. I have a child who has an anxiety disorder and the mass shootings we constantly have here have him terrified and he has frequently brought up wishing we could move to a country where that type of thing isn't a common occurrence. So it feels like, if I like the cold, which I do, then why not move to a place where my taxes go towards things I want like healthcare, and my child isn't afraid to go to a public event for fear of being shot. The 20k a year we would save now that health insurance is going up so much for us I think was the last push I needed.

[fraidycat]

Calgary is a LOT colder in winter than you be prepared for, lol. That being said, there are a lot of smaller cities in Southern Ontario that have lower COL and a climate that's quite similar to the East Coast. (Quebec has this as well, but depending on where you move you may find that the culture is not overly welcoming to Anglophones.) The East Coast provinces have a MUCH lower COL, but also much fewer resources, lower pay, high unemployment, etc.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/07/12/best-cities-jobs-affordable-homes_n_10740892.html

(Fair warning that anywhere within an hour of Toronto has had a housing boom since this was written, and housing is no longer quite as affordable.)

.

 

Coastal and Great Lakes region humid cold feels a heck of a lot colder than dry cold in the prairies and foothills.

 

I’ll take dry -25F degree weather over a humid 32F weather any day.

 

The only times I got so cold I couldn’t warm up because the cold seeped right into my bones were in southern Ontario, coastal North Carolina, and San Diego. I grew up on the Canadian prairies where it gets to -40.

[OrganicJen]

.

 

Coastal and Great Lakes region humid cold feels a heck of a lot colder than dry cold in the prairies and foothills.

 

I’ll take dry -25F degree weather over a humid 32F weather any day.

 

The only times I got so cold I couldn’t warm up because the cold seeped right into my bones were in southern Ontario, coastal North Carolina, and San Diego. I grew up on the Canadian prairies where it gets to -40.

I agree, I can handle the dry cold of places like Denver a lot more than places like the Midwest. That's one reason I think an area like Calgary coukd work.

[OrganicJen]

We looked into it seriously. I do wish we did it. My dh's profession was one that they needed but the process was two years and they had a cap of his many they would allow. I do kind if wish we just did it. I would love to live there.

Where were you thinking of moving there when you had thought about doing it? I had thought about it before but not as seriously as I am now that things have changed so much with healthcare.

[SeaConquest]

.

 

Coastal and Great Lakes region humid cold feels a heck of a lot colder than dry cold in the prairies and foothills.

 

I’ll take dry -25F degree weather over a humid 32F weather any day.

 

The only times I got so cold I couldn’t warm up because the cold seeped right into my bones were in southern Ontario, coastal North Carolina, and San Diego. I grew up on the Canadian prairies where it gets to -40.

San Diego? What in the world? We think 60F is cold here.

 

OP, my husband is from Quebec, but there's no way he'd move back to Canada because of the weather. I keep hoping that California, Oregon, and Washington will secede, and become Southern Canada. Dare to dream!

[OrganicJen]

San Diego? What in the world? We think 60F is cold here.

 

OP, my husband is from Quebec, but there's no way he'd move back to Canada because of the weather. I keep hoping that California, Oregon, and Washington will secede, and become Southern Canada. Dare to dream!

 

I know I keep hoping that too LOL!!

[luuknam]

Coastal and Great Lakes region humid cold feels a heck of a lot colder than dry cold in the prairies and foothills.

 

I’ll take dry -25F degree weather over a humid 32F weather any day.

 

The only times I got so cold I couldn’t warm up because the cold seeped right into my bones were in southern Ontario, coastal North Carolina, and San Diego. I grew up on the Canadian prairies where it gets to -40.

 

 

Don't forget wind chill. 

 

For the most part, the cold is really not that big a deal here - that's what clothes are for. And unless you're standing around doing nothing, there are tons of days in winter that I unzip my coat or even take it off because I otherwise end up melting, even while it's technically freezing. A couple of days ago my kids were even running around the playground wearing t-shirts. Of course, I'm originally from coastal 10 degrees further north (and many degrees further east), but still. The only time I really couldn't get warm was as in Iowa or something when we had to turn the truck off for 30 min to run into the store while it was like -40F, and that truck just wouldn't get heated up again - tried to sleep, hoping to warm up under blankets while wearing winter coat and lots of socks and all that, but had to drive it, even though there was nowhere to go because the highway in the direction we were going was closed because of the weather - took I think half an hour of driving to get warmed up again.

[MEmama]

The 20k a year we would save now that health insurance is going up so much for us I think was the last push I needed.

You won't be saving $20,000 on healthcare. When we moved up there, we spent almost exactly the same for health insurance as we did in the States (eye, dental and supplemental to make it equivalent to what we were accustomed to). And COL is much higher--even living in a Low COL province.

 

I'm not trying to dissuade you. We love Canada and went through the entire immigration process. I get it, I totally do. I will only advise you to keep your eyes wide open and listen not only to what you want to hear.

[kewb]

I dream of moving to Prince Edwards island and working from home via internet. I bring it up several times a year, especially in the heat of summer. No one else in my family is on board and I have two seriously cold natured people in my immediate family. Like lips are chapped year round on one and the other claims she will die of hypothermia when she gets a bit chilly on a late summer night. But if it weren't for them, and if Canada would take me, I would go in a heartbeat.

 

I may have watched too many Anne of Green Gables movies as a child though...

 

I read the Anne of Green Gables series until my books fell apart.  I share your dream.

 

We don't qualify to immigrate to Canada. Which made me sad.  

[MedicMom]

My best friend from college has. They moved for a job and their two children have been born in Canada. The immigration process was very hard and they actually got stranded for about four months—they’d given up their apartment here and then couldn’t move to Canada yet. She’s in the Quebec area, and was fluent in French before moving.

She likes it. It’s much more liberal politically and socially than she is, but that doesn’t sound like a problem for you. The COL is outrageous and they don’t have nearly the free money they’d have in the states. Even with health insurance, the supplemental insurance and out of pocket costs equal about what they’d pay here. Housing is very expensive and so is food. However, she enjoys the culture so much that the COL doesn’t bother her a lot.

[creekland]

Having grown up along the border (in the US, but from the road in front of my mom's house, you can literally see Canada), I consider Canada my second home.  It really isn't a foreign country to me and never has been.  At one point I could have gotten citizenship because my Step Mom is from Nova Scotia.  I'm assuming since she and my dad divorced, that's no longer an option, but even back then, I didn't seriously think about it.  Why?

 

Winter.

 

I moved away from the NY border with no regrets due to winter lasting too long for my tastes.  We still go to Canada several times a year including a couple of weeks ago.  I still prefer the majority culture there better than the majority culture here.  But they still have winter, so we're looking south for our future move.

 

FWIW, a fair number of Canadians winter in the Bahamas... (and FL).

 

If you opt to go for it, enjoy!  It's a great country (though Calgary isn't an area we've been to, we've explored Eastern Canada including the Maritimes).

[displace]

I would move to Vancouver (suburbs), or Toronto suburbs?

Idk enough about Canada to know where I’d like to live. There are plenty of people who immigrate to Canada or who are native and acclimate to the cold. But I’m sure it could be brutal to others.

 

In reality, it may be better to find a job with better heath insurance and move cross country. If you live in a more liberal state, or one with stricter gun laws, you may feel better. I want to move to another country, but it would be more expensive for us and difficult because of our professions. The other holdback is family. Flying to visit family can become quite expensive internationally.

[fraidycat]

San Diego? What in the world? We think 60F is cold here.

 

OP, my husband is from Quebec, but there's no way he'd move back to Canada because of the weather. I keep hoping that California, Oregon, and Washington will secede, and become Southern Canada. Dare to dream!

Yes, San Diego.

 

Even my mom felt frozen when she came to visit me there. And she’s always hot in Canada, even in winter. The dampness gets right down to the bone.

[mommyoffive]

I would move there in a heartbeat.  

 

I loved the Calgary area.   I would live in Canmore in a second.  Every time I look up the weather there in the winter it is warmer than it is where I live.   It is 50 there now.  

[YaelAldrich]

My husband is up for a position at UT.  We've started to crunch the numbers.  Housing is expensive where we live in Boston, but even more in Toronto!  It's going to have be a very good salary for us to keep our current standard of living...

[OrganicJen]

I would move there in a heartbeat.  

 

I loved the Calgary area.   I would live in Canmore in a second.  Every time I look up the weather there in the winter it is warmer than it is where I live.   It is 50 there now.  

 

Canmore would be my dream destination but it's much too expensive there.  If we go to Calgary which isn't too far from Canmore we end up ahead by about 20K a year but in Canmore that wouldn't be the case at all.  People talk about Vancouver and Toronto being so expensive which they are, but there are tons of places where the cost of living is less than where we are living now, the insurance would be free (we wouldn't need the supplemental insurance that you can pay extra for because even the basic free insurance is better than what we get here), and it looks like we qualify for the expedited entry program.  So I started the process for the expedited application etc.  It isn't like we are required to find jobs first with the express entry program so there shouldn't be any complicated timing issues hopefully.  It feels like there isn't a reason to at least try to live somewhere where we can just live without the stress of worrying about getting sick because it could lead to us losing our home.   

[OrganicJen]

Yes, San Diego.

 

Even my mom felt frozen when she came to visit me there. And she’s always hot in Canada, even in winter. The dampness gets right down to the bone.

 

I'm like that too.  I've been out skiing in cold arid conditions and I've at times had to unzip my jacket and take off my gloves, but in the damp/humid conditions it's just miserable to be cold.  

[OrganicJen]

My husband is up for a position at UT.  We've started to crunch the numbers.  Housing is expensive where we live in Boston, but even more in Toronto!  It's going to have be a very good salary for us to keep our current standard of living...

 

I personally would never consider Toronto...super expensive to live there.  I don't think it would be worth it financially to move there at all.  

[OrganicJen]

Having grown up along the border (in the US, but from the road in front of my mom's house, you can literally see Canada), I consider Canada my second home.  It really isn't a foreign country to me and never has been.  At one point I could have gotten citizenship because my Step Mom is from Nova Scotia.  I'm assuming since she and my dad divorced, that's no longer an option, but even back then, I didn't seriously think about it.  Why?

 

Winter.

 

I moved away from the NY border with no regrets due to winter lasting too long for my tastes.  We still go to Canada several times a year including a couple of weeks ago.  I still prefer the majority culture there better than the majority culture here.  But they still have winter, so we're looking south for our future move.

 

FWIW, a fair number of Canadians winter in the Bahamas... (and FL).

 

If you opt to go for it, enjoy!  It's a great country (though Calgary isn't an area we've been to, we've explored Eastern Canada including the Maritimes).

 

I think this is so funny how different people are.  I guess it's good that there are so many of us who enjoy the cold weather places and others who hate them because otherwise we'd all be squished into the same cities LOL.  There are just so many things I hate about the heat that I've always been so much happier in places with good cold winters.  Everywhere I've lived that didn't have the cold winters there were fleas and roaches in the summer and all sorts of other critters to deal with that didn't die off in the winters and in the heat of summer I could never enjoy the outdoor activities I wanted to because I'm sensitive to the heat.  The first time I moved to a city with snowy cold winters I was so nervous about driving in snow and dealing with it and I thought it would be awful but I discovered that there really is nothing about the cold or snow I mind at all and I prefer outdoor activities in the snow like snow shoeing and cross country skiing because I don't get sick feeling like from being out in the hot sun all day.  

[OrganicJen]

You won't be saving $20,000 on healthcare. When we moved up there, we spent almost exactly the same for health insurance as we did in the States (eye, dental and supplemental to make it equivalent to what we were accustomed to). And COL is much higher--even living in a Low COL province.

 

I'm not trying to dissuade you. We love Canada and went through the entire immigration process. I get it, I totally do. I will only advise you to keep your eyes wide open and listen not only to what you want to hear.

 

We aren't saving 20K on healthcare...we did the math on the difference in living in the Calgary area including our healthcare costs and all our other expenses and it comes out to a savings of 20K a year by moving there.  The saddest part is the free insurance we would get in Canada covers more than what our plan next year will cover here so we wouldn't even need the supplemental insurance there.  

[deBij]

I love this thread of people wanting to come to Canada.  I moved to Canada from Europe many moons ago and I am still not used to winter.  The cold temperature I can deal with with clothes or staying inside.  Winter activities can be enjoyable but winters with young children is hard.  Mostly the problem is that winter is simply too long.  

 

The free healthcare is good, not perfect but so nice not to have to worry about.

 

With regard to dental/vision insurance costs, most professional jobs include insurance that apply to the whole family.

[luuknam]

The other holdback is family. Flying to visit family can become quite expensive internationally.

 

 

Does it really matter that much in cost? (I have no clue). Realistically though, most Canadians live really close to the US border, so it wouldn't be that hard to drive to the US and fly from the US to elsewhere in the US. When we go to NL or my parents come visit us, we/they fly out of/to Toronto, because it's substantially cheaper than flying to/from Buffalo-Niagara. It kind of sucks having to cross the Canadian border in order to fly, but it's not *that* big a deal (except of course last time when I had a visa issue... ugh). 

 

Our landlord did talk about electricity being so expensive in Toronto (she lives in Toronto, and was shocked that we weren't paranoid about keeping on the minimum number of lights possible). And when I was a truck driver, the few times they sent me to Toronto the traffic jams in Mississauga were just awful. 

 

Realistically, I think the odds of being shot in a mass shooting are really slim... it makes much more sense to worry about other gun deaths (not that that's a vast improvement, worrying about one kind of gun death over another, just that moving to Canada over mass shootings seems extreme (of course, I'm from NL where the number of homicides (including mass shootings) is way lower, percentage-wise, than the US, and still manage to not freak out)).

[OrganicJen]

Does it really matter that much in cost? (I have no clue). Realistically though, most Canadians live really close to the US border, so it wouldn't be that hard to drive to the US and fly from the US to elsewhere in the US. When we go to NL or my parents come visit us, we/they fly out of/to Toronto, because it's substantially cheaper than flying to/from Buffalo-Niagara. It kind of sucks having to cross the Canadian border in order to fly, but it's not *that* big a deal (except of course last time when I had a visa issue... ugh).

 

Our landlord did talk about electricity being so expensive in Toronto (she lives in Toronto, and was shocked that we weren't paranoid about keeping on the minimum number of lights possible). And when I was a truck driver, the few times they sent me to Toronto the traffic jams in Mississauga were just awful.

 

Realistically, I think the odds of being shot in a mass shooting are really slim... it makes much more sense to worry about other gun deaths (not that that's a vast improvement, worrying about one kind of gun death over another, just that moving to Canada over mass shootings seems extreme (of course, I'm from NL where the number of homicides (including mass shootings) is way lower, percentage-wise, than the US, and still manage to not freak out)).

We wouldn't move there because of guns, we would move because financially it would be a huge plus for us and the gun thing is sort of an icing on the cake issue.

[Arcadia]

My husband is up for a position at UT. We've started to crunch the numbers. Housing is expensive where we live in Boston, but even more in Toronto! It's going to have be a very good salary for us to keep our current standard of living...

We also look at the possibility of jobs in Toronto and Vancouver if we purposely job hunt there for my husband as well as our kids down the road. One reason we rejected a relocation was because it is easier to find a job where we are if my husband is retrenched compared to where we were to be relocated. Even in the tech sector, we have friends being retrenched because wages are too high compared to fresh local graduates. So job stability is an issue though that is hard to predict.

 

A friend’s husband is from Toronto but works for Microsoft in another country as he could not find a job there. My friend and her husband would visit his family annually, staying a few days. Her in-laws stay near UT and Chinatown.

[OrganicJen]

I love this thread of people wanting to come to Canada. I moved to Canada from Europe many moons ago and I am still not used to winter. The cold temperature I can deal with with clothes or staying inside. Winter activities can be enjoyable but winters with young children is hard. Mostly the problem is that winter is simply too long.

 

The free healthcare is good, not perfect but so nice not to have to worry about.

 

With regard to dental/vision insurance costs, most professional jobs include insurance that apply to the whole family.

We have to pay 100% out of pocket for vision and dental here :( I just think it's sad that our healthcare will be so pathetic next year and cost so much money just to be insured for something major so we don't risk losing our home if we have an emergency of some kind. We have to pay out of pocket for everything that our taxes would be paying for in other countries. I really don't mind paying taxes if I agree with what they are being used for.

[rose]

I've lived most my life in BC. Are you a big city family, medium city or rural? If I were going to pick a good spot in BC I'd choose the outskirts of of the smaller cities in BC, like Victoria, Naniamo, Courtenay, Kelowna, Kamloops, Vernon or Prince George. The housing prices in the smaller cities are a cheaper and the outskirts are cheaper yet but you're still close to ammenities. I've lived in Courtenay, Victoria and Prince George before and we are currently in Greater Vancouver. The weather near the coast is much like western WA (ie. RAIN) but as you go inland you'll get colder but sunnier. None on BC (except in the extreme north) is as cold as the prairie provinces. I've never experienced -40F/C here. Even in Prince George it only hits -30C (-22F) for about a week or two a year.

 

Vancouver housing is RIDICULOUS right now. The housing prices are astronomical. Chilliwak is not quite so bad though and it's still nice and close to the bigger city. I really appreciate the multicultural aspect of this area. It is VERY diverse here. Within a 10 minute drive I can buy ethnic food from countless different countries. I'm sure more than 50% of the people in my municipality are immigrants. The deals to be found on food definitely offset the housing issues. I think that it's good for the children too. The other cities in BC are diverse as well but not quite like Greater Vancouver.

 

From a homeschooling point of view, BC is great. All the provinces are reasonably easy to homeschool in but Quebec is a bit more of a hassle.

 

If you really don't mind the winters, Manitoba might also be worth considering. The COL is definitely cheaper out there.

[OrganicJen]

I've lived most my life in BC. Are you a big city family, medium city or rural? If I were going to pick a good spot in BC I'd choose the outskirts of of the smaller cities in BC, like Victoria, Naniamo, Courtenay, Kelowna, Kamloops, Vernon or Prince George. The housing prices in the smaller cities are a cheaper and the outskirts are cheaper yet but you're still close to ammenities. I've lived in Courtenay, Victoria and Prince George before and we are currently in Greater Vancouver. The weather near the coast is much like western WA (ie. RAIN) but as you go inland you'll get colder but sunnier. None on BC (except in the extreme north) is as cold as the prairie provinces. I've never experienced -40F/C here. Even in Prince George it only hits -30C (-22F) for about a week or two a year.

 

Vancouver housing is RIDICULOUS right now. The housing prices are astronomical. Chilliwak is not quite so bad though and it's still nice and close to the bigger city. I really appreciate the multicultural aspect of this area. It is VERY diverse here. Within a 10 minute drive I can buy ethnic food from countless different countries. I'm sure more than 50% of the people in my municipality are immigrants. The deals to be found on food definitely offset the housing issues. I think that it's good for the children too. The other cities in BC are diverse as well but not quite like Greater Vancouver.

 

From a homeschooling point of view, BC is great. All the provinces are reasonably easy to homeschool in but Quebec is a bit more of a hassle.

 

If you really don't mind the winters, Manitoba might also be worth considering. The COL is definitely cheaper out there.

Thanks I'll look into those towns for sure. Canmore looks like my dream town but is way too expensive. I love the mountains so being fairly close to them would be great if we can't live right in them.

[wintermom]

I was born in Calgary, grew up in Edmonton, and currently live in Ontario.  If you can move to Calgary I would say go for it. It is a wonderful city. If your research has shown that you will save money on health care and COL, that's great. Another bonus is the universities are a lot cheaper as well. 

 

Calgary is so close to the Rocky Mountains, which has amazing hiking, skiing and camping possibilities. The winters can be cold, but they get regular chinooks which can bring the temps up to above freezing and balmy. The snow can completely melt within days. It provides amazing relief. 

 

There is so much more to quality of life than worrying about "cold winters." The homes are extremely well insulated, so you won't be cold indoors. You may need to invest in a block heater for your vehicle. There have been immigrants from the south Asia, the Caribbean, India, and other very warm countries coming to Canada for decades. They manage to survive the winters, so I'm confident other North Americans can do it, too. 

Edited December 6, 2017 by wintermom

[Melissa in Australia]

If you do manage to migrate you may not be eligible for health cover for a year or more.

 

Here in Australia you have to live here for about a year and have permanent resadancy before you can get Medicare.

I know my Canadian husband has to get travelers insurance every time he travels back to Canada because even though he is a citizen he is no longer a resident. If he was to go back to Canada to live he would have to pay a sum of money to get his residency reinstalled.

Edited December 6, 2017 by Melissa in Australia

[OrganicJen]

I was born in Calgary, grew up in Edmonton, and currently live in Ontario. If you can move to Calgary I would say go for it. It is a wonderful city. If your research has shown that you will save money on health care and COL, that's great. Another bonus is the universities are a lot cheaper as well.

 

Calgary is so close to the Rocky Mountains, which has amazing hiking, skiing and camping possibilities. The winters can be cold, but they get regular chinooks which can bring the temps up to above freezing and balmy. The snow can completely melt within days. It provides amazing relief.

 

There is so much more to quality of life than worrying about "cold winters." The homes are extremely well insulated, so you won't be cold indoors. You may need to invest in a block heater for your vehicle. There have been immigrants from the south Asia, the Caribbean, India, and other very warm countries coming to Canada for decades. They manage to survive the winters, so I'm confident other North Americans can do it, too.

That's great to read. I've been in enough cold places that I'm confident we can handle it, and the chinooks sound great. I mean it's not like we are planning to move into an igloo or something...I think that's what some people imagine when I tell them that we are looking into moving there LOL.

[creekland]

I think this is so funny how different people are.  I guess it's good that there are so many of us who enjoy the cold weather places and others who hate them because otherwise we'd all be squished into the same cities LOL.  There are just so many things I hate about the heat that I've always been so much happier in places with good cold winters.  Everywhere I've lived that didn't have the cold winters there were fleas and roaches in the summer and all sorts of other critters to deal with that didn't die off in the winters and in the heat of summer I could never enjoy the outdoor activities I wanted to because I'm sensitive to the heat.  The first time I moved to a city with snowy cold winters I was so nervous about driving in snow and dealing with it and I thought it would be awful but I discovered that there really is nothing about the cold or snow I mind at all and I prefer outdoor activities in the snow like snow shoeing and cross country skiing because I don't get sick feeling like from being out in the hot sun all day.  

 

I didn't mind winter as much as a youngster.  I was out training my horses in the snow before school - my dad installed riding ring lights for me.

 

As I've grown, I've preferred a milder winter - hence our relocation to PA.

 

At my stage of health now, I can't handle below freezing temps well (below 40 or so actually), esp with a wind, so this is our last winter in the north.

 

I also have never liked high heat (> 82 or so).  We lived in FL for 5 years before coming back to PA.  Our current plan is to get the best of both worlds and be like many others snowbirding.  Summer will be in PA or points north.  Winter will be somewhere south - place undetermined right now.  It could be FL or it could be an island in the Caribbean.  Costa Rica even hits our list of possibilities.  Our ultimate goal is to stay in temps between 50 and 85 most of the time. 

 

In an ideal world we could pack a backpack apiece and just keep wandering keeping the weather map in mind...  :coolgleamA:  but we're not there yet financially, so... gotta stay put enough for hubby to keep doing his job.

[creekland]

That's great to read. I've been in enough cold places that I'm confident we can handle it, and the chinooks sound great. I mean it's not like we are planning to move into an igloo or something...I think that's what some people imagine when I tell them that we are looking into moving there LOL.

 

Canada's film at Disney opens with something like that.  It's really cute!

 

I would make sure you brush up on your hockey teams.

[OrganicJen]

I didn't mind winter as much as a youngster. I was out training my horses in the snow before school - my dad installed riding ring lights for me.

 

As I've grown, I've preferred a milder winter - hence our relocation to PA.

 

At my stage of health now, I can't handle below freezing temps well (below 40 or so actually), esp with a wind, so this is our last winter in the north.

 

I also have never liked high heat (> 82 or so). We lived in FL for 5 years before coming back to PA. Our current plan is to get the best of both worlds and be like many others snowbirding. Summer will be in PA or points north. Winter will be somewhere south - place undetermined right now. It could be FL or it could be an island in the Caribbean. Costa Rica even hits our list of possibilities. Our ultimate goal is to stay in temps between 50 and 85 most of the time.

 

In an ideal world we could pack a backpack apiece and just keep wandering keeping the weather map in mind... :coolgleamA: but we're not there yet financially, so... gotta stay put enough for hubby to keep doing his job.

I like the wandering plan that's our goal too. I find that the older I get the more sensitive I am to heat but not cold...maybe it's a hormonal thing though that might change lol.

[luuknam]

We wouldn't move there because of guns, we would move because financially it would be a huge plus for us and the gun thing is sort of an icing on the cake issue.

 

 

Right. But the financials depend on so many things. For example, DW's employer pays almost all of our health insurance costs - we do pay some, but not much at all. So, COL, tax structure, benefits that come with the job, etc etc etc - it's just not really possible to compare random new job in random place in Canada with random new job in random place in the US.