Where to move? ON or AB? | Page 4 | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

I can only hope the competition to get you as an employee is as keen as the competition to direct your whereabouts!

Good decision re: Spanish. It's quite a bit easier than French IMO, although a study of one will make the other easier.

¡Buena suerte!

Save2Retire@55 said
@ Doug - Thanks for your points. I am open to any of those smaller towns but I prefer either Edmonton or St. Albert as I have no knowledge or idea about the other 2 you mentioned.

Kelowna - There is no way I can think of living there or anywhere in BC. Sorry! I just did a quick check on indeed for IT jobs in Kelowna and there is only 60 Full time jobs with a $70K+ pay. That's not a city I am looking for. Also no big name university or main international airport.  

No problem. Thank you for your appreciation to my comments. Curious as to why St. Albert, though, over Devon or Leduc? All three have similar populations, culture, amenities and proximity to Edmonton. Might be worthy of a drive on a summer's trip out to Edmonton, perhaps?

On the latter, "no big name university"? The University of British Columbia is not a big enough university for you? No "main international airport"? Without sounding like a Kelowna "fanboy" because it has its share of "knocks" (though not as many as West Kelowna has!), Kelowna International Airport was the fastest-growing airport in Canada in 2017. It has daily, weekly, twice- or thrice-weekly and seasonal direct flights to destinations like Vancouver, Victoria, Cranbrook, Prince George, Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Toronto, Ottawa, Phoenix, Las Vegas, multiple cities in Mexico and multiple cities in the Caribbean. It's set to top 2 million annual passengers in 2018, no other Canadian airport has done this outside of the major metropolitan areas. It's already the 10th or 11th largest airport in Canada by passenger volume (in addition to being 1st in passenger volume growth) and I expect it to surpass airports in Halifax, Quebec City and Victoria shortly, firmly in the top 10. They're keen on increasing the number of flights to Toronto so as to increase the number of international destinations they can reach. In short, they can't keep up to the number of infrastructure projects they have in various planning stages and have made numerous land purchases to expand and double (or triple) the size of the existing terminal. Factor in Penticton Regional Airport, which has WestJet Encore and Air Canada Jazz direct flights to Vancouver, Calgary and other western Canadian locales and you've got lots of direct flight options. You can easily walk from the airport to UBC's campus in Kelowna, I should point out. There's now a backlog of probably 1500+ purpose-built rental housing apartments and townhomes in various stages of approval or construction, on top of all of the "for sale" townhomes, condos and single family homes, too. 🙂

As for job salaries, careful on relying on information on websites. If you have the right educational and work experience credentials, you have negotiating power and leverage to command a salary higher than any you are seeing publicly.

Cheers,
Doug

Save2Retire@55 said
Thanks Doug. I still won't move to BC. The main campus is not in that town. Also, yes many flights but nothing direct. Keep changing flights is very annoying. Now that I am thinking about it, I am almost removing AB from the list too.
Looking at a simple search on indeed.ca and searching for IT jobs with $70K or more, Edmonton has 835 jobs. Calgary 1150. Kelowna 144. Ottawa 1530. Montreal 1838. Toronto 9374.

Looking at these numbers, I can easily say, Kelowna is not an option. Vancouver has lots of jobs too but I will never be able to buy anything there and we like some snow from time to time.

I am getting some calls and interviews from Ottawa these days so keeping the fingers crossed. Also got an interview in Toronto with paid flights. The pay is high (6 figures) but I am still doubting if I want to go there or not. Oh well. Shall see.  

Okay, that's helpful. It sounds like you do a lot of flights in a given year, probably international ones, too; however, it's worth pointing out that even in connecting flights, you may not need to change planes if the plane just touches down to bring more passengers aboard and allow some to disembark. 🙂

As for the university bit, I don't think there's any one "main" campus. They have multiple campuses and libraries, some highly specialized. For instance, even with UBC Okanagan, they also have what they call the Clinical Academic Campus for medical students at Kelowna General Hospital. Does the university play a major role in your life that it would affect your decision? I can see the airport, especially if you fly to Europe and Asia a lot that aren't served by direct flights out of Kelowna but unless you or your wife work at a university (or want to work at one), I'm surprised that'd play a significant role. Any insight you can share would be welcome and helpful.

Agreed with you on ruling out Alberta, too, if you want to be near a major airport. Edmonton, likely due to its more northern geographic area, has less direct flights than Calgary and a smaller airport. For that reason, I would make Calgary as the only Alberta city you'd potentially consider.

In terms of house prices, it sounds like Kelowna would be fine but you'd rather be in Vancouver, where house prices are untenable. 🙂

I think Ottawa is the next best idea. What about Halifax though?

Cheers,
Doug

Save2Retire@55 said

Thank you Loonie. Yes, the market seems to be hot in Ottawa and no one so far asked if I speak French 🙂  

Probably speaking Computer is the key!

That would require a high degree of fluency. If that's what they want, I would cut my losses and give it a pass, personally.
Most people in Ottawa do speak English, however, even if they're native French speakers - at least from my visits there.

Save2Retire@55 said
Ok folks! We are moving to the capital region 🙂 I am hoping we won't move for the next 2 decades but funny enough we will have to come back to Montreal twice this year just to fly from YUL. Already booked and can't change / cancel.

Thanks everyone for your great feedback.  

Good choice.Welcome to Ottawa.