BC or Alberta? Tough decision

[wannamove]

Hi there,

My husband has been lucky enough to have been offered a job in both BC and Alberta. The problem is making a choice when we have been to neither!!

Alberta is attractive as the house prices are lower and there is less rain but looks like it might be in a smallish town and I fear being stuck in the middle of no-where when we are kinda used to suburbian/city life. Although not too far from Calgary I think. Surrey, BC sounds lovely but then there is the rain and the high house prices. But close to the beach - and the city.. What about crime? I hear Vancouver has a bit of a rep???

Any advice is greatly appreciated. We are a young family and just want to get out of Ireland. Only home 3 months after 6 years in NZ and Ireland is not the place for us.. Priorities are all wrong in this country! What happened to quality of life????

Thanks. Any help/opinion would be great.

[SczzyBoy]

Originally Posted by wannamove

Hi there,

My husband has been lucky enough to have been offered a job in both BC and Alberta. The problem is making a choice when we have been to neither!!

Alberta is attractive as the house prices are lower and there is less rain but looks like it might be in a smallish town and I fear being stuck in the middle of no-where when we are kinda used to suburbian/city life. Although not too far from Calgary I think. Surrey, BC sounds lovely but then there is the rain and the high house prices. But close to the beach - and the city.. What about crime? I hear Vancouver has a bit of a rep???

Any advice is greatly appreciated. We are a young family and just want to get out of Ireland. Only home 3 months after 6 years in NZ and Ireland is not the place for us.. Priorities are all wrong in this country! What happened to quality of life????

Thanks. Any help/opinion would be great.

Hmm - interesting that you think Ireland has a poor quality of life. My 4 brothers and 4 sisters might argue the fact on that one.!

As regards AB vs BC then I can only comment on AB as that's where I've moved to. If you don't like rain then AB is for you. It's so dry here that I would almost call it a desert. We get rain but it's usually just a downpour and that's it.

Crime in Calgary is focused around the criminals. Stay away from them and you're pretty cool.

House prices here are 1/3 of the UK. I can't really compare with Ireland as I haven't lived there for a long time. The lot next to me is an end of terrace lot and they are asking $896K for a 70x120 plot. Good value if you are a developer.

I consider Calgary to be a nice Irish town transported to the edge of the Rockies. The people are similar and the life is good. Overall it's a cool place. Come join the Flames gang!

[wannamove]

Thanks for the info. Just another quick question if you don't mind.. there's a chance that we might be north of Calgary... Do you know anything about Olds, Red Deer, Stettler... are we talking hicksville or would say, Olds, be an easy commute from Calgary??

As for Ireland's poor quality of life - we are comparing to the 6 years we just spent in NZ - it is hard to come back to Ireland after that.. :-)

[Raymapleleaf]

hi we have been to both we are moving to calgary we think its better for kids no rain more money and close to rockies too
kind people too
regards ray

[Robyn]

Originally Posted by wannamove

Hi there,

My husband has been lucky enough to have been offered a job in both BC and Alberta. The problem is making a choice when we have been to neither!!

Alberta is attractive as the house prices are lower and there is less rain but looks like it might be in a smallish town and I fear being stuck in the middle of no-where when we are kinda used to suburbian/city life. Although not too far from Calgary I think. Surrey, BC sounds lovely but then there is the rain and the high house prices. But close to the beach - and the city.. What about crime? I hear Vancouver has a bit of a rep???

Any advice is greatly appreciated. We are a young family and just want to get out of Ireland. Only home 3 months after 6 years in NZ and Ireland is not the place for us.. Priorities are all wrong in this country! What happened to quality of life????

Thanks. Any help/opinion would be great.

This is not so much a question as BC vs. Alberta but more of a question of Calgary or Vancouver. The reason I state this is because BC and Alberta are MASSIVE provinces and BC in particular has such a diversity of geography and climates, you really can't generalize the provinces. A lot of people like to say that BC is very rainy. It's true that there are certain parts of BC that experience a lot of rain, but BC is also home to Canada's only desert and many semi-arid dry zones. So, if you truly wished to escape the rain, you could always look into the interior of BC to places like Kamloops or the Okanagan Valley (Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon, etc). Only coastal BC is famous for its rain (which is similar to Ireland in terms of lushness). The coast is also a bit like New Zealand with its mountains and rainforests along the ocean.

Vancouver also has what's called a microclimate. Essentially, the further south you are from the north shore mountains, the less rain you experience. Surrey, which is south-east of Vancouver, experiences less rain than Vancouver does. North Vancouver, which is north of Vancouver, experiences more rain. The south of Surrey has less rain than the north of Surrey, and so on.

Crime in Vancouver tends to be related to vandalism/property theft as opposed to violence crime. I am unfamiliar with the crime in Calgary.

Public transit in and around Greater Vancouver is excellent. Surrey is connected to the Skytrain system (a bit like a monorail/subway above ground) which connects you to downtown Vancouver in 30 minutes. Calgary does have a lightrail system however I've heard it's really used for commuters and its service is limiting.

With Surrey, the temperatures stay relatively mild year round - the summers rarely get too hot and the winters rarely go below freezing. If you're a gardener, then it's ideal. Calgary is very dry and the severe winters do limit a lot of what you can grow there, if gardening is important to you.

[louiseg]

Originally Posted by wannamove

Thanks for the info. Just another quick question if you don't mind.. there's a chance that we might be north of Calgary... Do you know anything about Olds, Red Deer, Stettler... are we talking hicksville or would say, Olds, be an easy commute from Calgary??

As for Ireland's poor quality of life - we are comparing to the 6 years we just spent in NZ - it is hard to come back to Ireland after that.. :-)

Olds is about an hours drive from Calgary, it is commutable but I wouldn't think there are many who do that. In winter at times the drive may not be so easy.

Red Deer is quite large and should fulfill most requirements for suburbia. Sorry but I don't know a great deal about what they have to offer there.
-Check out each town website (seach in Google) to get a feel for what its like.
-Read the online local newspapers
-Ask your husbands prospective employers if they know any other expats there who would be willing to talk to you.
-If you ask more specific questions on the forum there may be someone who is already there.
Most defintely a research trip would be the best way to tell, that way you get the 'feel' of the place first hand.