Where to move? ON or AB? | Page 2 | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Top It Up said
Victoria, BC is the crown jewel of Canada - considering anywhere else is just trifling.  

I would probably agree with that - or maybe any mid-sized Vancouver Island city, such as Nanaimo (never been there, though) or Courtenay, which is growing and having a bit of a "mini-boom," as I understand it.

Never been to Kingston but, from the pictures I've seen, I love it so that, Ottawa or Waterloo would probably be my "top picks". 🙂

In Alberta, my sister lives in Calgary and really likes it. My grandpa lives in Pigeon Lake (not actually IN the lake, though! at least not YET...he's not "sleeping with the fishes," so to speak). Edmonton's nice, not as laid out as well as Calgary but fairly affordable. Winters are rough anywhere in Alberta, maybe less humid than Quebec but certainly more humid (i.e., more wind chill) than, say, a semi-arrid place like the Okanagan where I am. If I were going to move to Alberta, my "top picks" would be (in this order):
- Leduc (close to Edmonton and the airport, with public transit service to Edmonton)
- Devon (equally close to Edmonton but perhaps not as good of public transit connections to the big city)
- Calgary, including surrounding areas like Cochrane, Airdrie, Balzac (i.e., Amazon Fulfillment Centre under construction currently; also home to a large outdoor and indoor shopping centre that is a destination for Calgary area citizens and tourists alike; also home to Canada's westernmost groundhog & weather prognosticator, Balzac Billy) or Okotoks (close to the southernmost part of Calgary which is growing rapidly in a modern but a more affordable suburb, including proximity to the new Calgary Health Region Southern Campus Health Centre)

You might also consider Red Deer or Medicine Hat, the next two largest cities at about 100,000 a piece.

Cheers,
Doug

AltaRed said
A lot may depend on work experience so far and preferred careers, but I would suggest not overlooking the southern interior of BC, e.g. the Okanagan Valley. Professional employment is now picking up with a growing tech sector, and the climate is moderate relative to other places in Canada (southern Ontario coming closest perhaps overall). Housing is still relatively affordable, though now starting to rapidly increase due to people fleeing the Lower Mainland of BC, and may now be higher than Montreal. There is also a good UBC campus here albeit not as big and diverse as exists in Vancouver itself.

I've lived in AB for many years, GTA for about 10 years, and also St. John's. I am now retired and live in the Okanagan Valley with no intention to ever leave it.

It might help revealing what kind of careers one is focusing on.  

I live in the Okanagan too and I would say it's pretty good but probably about as affordable as Victoria. Average home price in the Central Okanagan, according to BC Assessment data, is now over $600,000. However, I wonder how they define "average". My parents and I live in a 35ish year old 1100 square foot walk-up home with an above ground 900 square foot basement that is plenty big enough and at its most recent assessment of $414,000 is pretty reasonable. The one thing I would caution: be careful which city you pick. 🙂

My "top pick" would be the District of Lake Country, both for its proximity to the City of Kelowna, the airport, the City of Vernon and the UBC Okanagan campus. Its municipal governance is a bit better, with a council less afraid to spend money on the most basic of public services.

I would stay far away from the City of West Kelowna, where I live, with an asinine municipal council that won't spend on anything besides fire, police and municipal bureaucrats. Every which way you turn, they're cutting spending and service hours at the only public pool, on public transit, on roads & sidewalks and snow clearing is horrid.

The City of Penticton is growing rapidly as is the Town of Oliver, both of those would be good, more affordable picks, but, in the latter, you'd want to both have your driver's license. That said, the brand new local provincial prison always seems to be hiring Corrections Officers. On its back door is the massive Jackson Triggs/Inniskillin winery and production facility, which, I'd imagine, is always hiring.

Cheers,
Doug

Ottawa is a good city to live. Very good french public school and very reasonable housing price.

Have never lived in the Okanagan but have visited there several times. Hot as Hades in summer; high risk of fires; lotsa snow in winter; overpopulated considering the space is a valley. I would agree with Doug on Penticton, which I like. Kelowna is a nightmare in my opinion.
However, you need to be where the job is. Don't count on driving from one town to another to go to work as there can be problems on the highways due to weather etc. I couldn't live there as I find it all claustrophobic, but it's pretty. AltaRed is likely correct about the tech biz in Kelowna, but the result of this rapid growth is really ugly IMO; and news stories tell us this has prompted building on slopes which are vulnerable to fires and landslides, so be very careful about where you buy, if you buy.
i wouldn't touch Vancouver Island. Personal preference, but I dislike Victoria, a very boring town in my opinion , with rinky-dink facilities.
I love BC; great place to visit. And I have seen a great deal of it. just wouldn't want to live there except as retiree. Now, you can all dump on me for my opinions, but that's what they are. Nobody has to agree.

To OP: I think what you lack is a strategy for moving forward and evaluating the options. You need a very clear list of priorities and a clear sense of what you are willing to put into monthly house, mortgage, utilities, insurance for house, taxes. Look at hydro rates - much higher than QC, more than likely. Be aware too that car insurance costs vary geographically. There is significant variation, within GTA, even within Toronto, on cost of house and car insurance, for example. In some areas you will need flood insurance, which can be very expensive. In others, you will find fire insurance is expensive. Are there some locations where you could avoid owning 2 cars? All these factors, and more, need to be put into the formula.

I don't know how you manage 2-3 out of country trips/yr for 4 people on perhaps 100K pre-tax family income?, AND save money. My hat is off to you!

You need to have some sort of chart which shows how much you would need to be earning in order to find a job in city X to be attractive. To do this, you would need to cost out the variables, including the extra travel costs, convenience to French school, etc.

I don't see that there is one province which is necessarily better than another for you. You don't seem to have a strong personal preference about where you want to live, although it sounds like you may favour ON. Ontario and Alberta are like night and day, actually - geographically, politically, recreationally, culturally, etc. Do you really not care about these things? Perhaps not.

FWIW, I would not go to LeDuc. Thre's nothing much there and it is is a hike into the city, although roads not as busy as here. i too have relatives at Pigeon Lake, oddly enough - very expensive for what it is. Lakes are scarce in AB, so that Pigeon Lake is expensive as it's not far from Edmonton. It's fairly large as a lake for Alberta, but not really big. My family members have been there all their lives but they never have much positive to say about the lake itself - always too many bugs or something. I would go to Strathcona, within Edmonton, or St Albert outside of it. Calgary is also nice in some areas but rough in others, and very convenient to mountains. if you like Alpine skiing, then the West is for you. I also like Red Deer, but not sure if any jobs there; would not be expensive, I don't think. But I would not leave Ontario for Alberta, personally.

I don't get a strong sense of what you want in a community, other than costs and French school and jobs, so it's hard to recommend.

I would say, develop your grid or chart, then start applying to places that fit into it, and see what comes up. When you find a good match, and get an offer, your gut will tell you if that's what you want.

Use your next vacation to see more of Canada, and explore some of these places in person.

Top It Up, some truth to what you say (I personally think GTA is the hole of Canada), but you might have started it - see post #6.

Everyone has some civic pride and presumably likes where they live or they wouldn't live there. I moved from GTA to where I consider paradise in comparison but I'm not suggesting anyone else move here - it's just fine the way it is, thanks, quite happy to have it overlooked by other potential-migrants!

Sounds like Save...... sees negatives for all options - price of homes, commute, language, travel connections, climate, job opportunities, provincial economic outlook, etc, etc. You can always find fault with where you live, no place has everything, so often people like that end up moving a lot or at least being dissatisfied with where they are (Save likes to travel extensively it seems too, another indicator to me), i.e. the grass is always greener personalities. Their lives will always be more peripatetic than those of us who like to hunker down in a place they love.

When I decided as a youngster on where I'd live, I NEEDED not to be a wage-slave for decades to my mortgage or other financial obligations, I NEEDED a pace of life out of the rat race, I NEEDED a small-city environment where nature, not buildings and roads, was the dominant daily environment in my neighbourhood and town. So focusing on those 3 made it easier, lots of options - the rest of the stuff, there's some good, some bad, just like everywhere, who cares? And if you have a family that enjoys being & living together lots of places will do just fine as far as having a happy life.

Top It Up said
The derogatory comments aimed at BC, as a whole, are so incredibly out-of-touch with reality that they are worth no further comment except to say they are comments typical of myopic easterners.  

Indeed, but I have refrained from commenting on such bias. That said, the OP is not going to find the perfect solution. It will be a compromise of job opportunities/career, physical environment and amenities, cultural and social environment, etc. The OP needs to establish priorities and start doing a lot of internet digging to see what appeals, and what does not appeal.

The big cities offer the best job and cultural opportunities, but bring with them high costs of living and/or commuting. Smaller regional centres are a compromise of what I consider higher 'quality' of life at the expense of job opportunities. I've lived and worked in over a dozen locations over my career, in centres of 150k to 6000k... as far north as Edmonton, as far east as St. John's and as far south as Houston. Each has its pluses and minuses.

Before the OP makes 'final' hard decisions, the OP and family should ideally spend some vacation time in the key places of choice and get absorbed in trying things like the commute to get a real feel. I would fully understand if the OP has no desire to 'dry run' Calgary, Edmonton or Winnipeg in dead winter. I had enough winters in Calgary and Edmonton to know I could never deal with that again. Christmas visits back to family in Calgary are often a painful physical experience.