can you help?

[steve rimmer]

Wanting to emigrate to Canada from the UK, but my husband is very reluctant, he is a qualified joiner of 16 years, I currently work as a teaching assistant. we have 3 children under the age of 10.
Have been told we can be fast tracked to Calgary, what do think? What is the cost of living like compared to wages? what salary does a joiner get?
sorry for so may questions but I want my husband to see every possilbe improvement in this move could make for us and the kids. are there any areas to stay clear of? I would like some land but not too far away from everything.
Also what hours are generally worked they probably differ allover so just a guess would be fine. We would also be mortgage free if we made the move would this added extra be a huge bonus over there.

[steve rimmer]

Never gave my name sorry, its ste and chris

[Canadian Wannabe!]

We are moving to Calgary in July (as long as the house sells!) and the lifesyle is the reason we are going. If you were mortgage free you would be much better off.

The cost of general things we found to be chaeper for example for the kids an Ice Hockey game for the family was £15.00 (local team) they are very much into their sports and this was much more reasonal for them to be able to do than it would be over here because of the cost of it all. We were speaking to several expats who's only regrets were they didn't do it years ago! Also with regards to your husbands line of work there is another few sites where you could search for jobs, pay etc workopolis - cca - ab.constructionjobstores - Hope this helps

[steve rimmer]

Where abouts in Calgary are you heading?
Have you been on any visits to Canada?
have you done the whole relocation yourself or have you used an agency?
any help on where to start would be great

[steve rimmer]

we would have about $410,000 for a house would you find this enough for a house with some land?

[Canadian Wannabe!]

Originally Posted by steve rimmer

we would have about $410,000 for a house would you find this enough for a house with some land?

I think this will depend really on were you are going to want to live in Canada.

[Canadian Wannabe!]

Originally Posted by steve rimmer

Where abouts in Calgary are you heading?
Have you been on any visits to Canada?
have you done the whole relocation yourself or have you used an agency?
any help on where to start would be great

We are heading to Okotoks which is just out side Calgary. We visited back in January when my OH did his testing for the Calgary Police. We have done the relocation process outselves (well I found all the info and point him in the right direction!).

First we went to Canada House in London and they gave us the idea of the PNP route into Canada. They also gave us some newspapers which if you google you can find the online versions to have a look at. We went to a local immigration show in london as well where we met people who lived in the part of the country we wanted to go. The shows are great they have talks you can go and listen to and stands where you can go and find out about mortgages, houses, money exchange, jobs.

Do you have any ideea what part of the country you would like to go to, what type of lifestyle are you looking for?

[oddball]

A friend of mine recently sold a large house on 15 acres which he had used to run a horse ranch on , it sold for $400,000.00 . It is situated close to the small town of Cayuga , commuting from an area like this to a city like Hamilton is easy and stress free , general living expenses are much lower for instance than if you locate close to Toronto and the populace in general is also much friendlier .Colin